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Author: Earle, Alison
Resulting in 9 citations.
1. Earle, Alison
Keeping the Job You Find: Understanding Job Turnover Among Welfare Recipients Who Obtain Work
Ph.D. Dissertation, Harvard University, 1998
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: UMI - University Microfilms, Bell and Howell Information and Learning
Keyword(s): Benefits, Insurance; Child Health; Child Support; Children, Preschool; Family Characteristics; Human Capital; Job Tenure; Job Turnover; Poverty; Welfare

This dissertation investigates the process of job loss among welfare recipients who become employed. I use quantitative data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to evaluate three questions: Do welfare recipients have a more difficult time keeping jobs than other workers? What factors explain the differences in job duration? What factors affect job turnover? Policymakers seeking to reduce welfare recidivism or reduce poverty should be informed by an understanding of whether and why job retention is a challenge for welfare recipients who obtain work. I find that while rapid job turnover is a problem to some degree for all employed women, welfare recipients have shorter job stays than other employed women. The average job duration for recipients is almost six months shorter than among non-recipients. I find that welfare recipients are 38 percent more likely to end a job in a given month than other employed women. Even when I compared the probability of turnover for recipients and other women within the same type of job, I found that welfare recipients were 28 percent more likely to end a job. In both cases, I was able to explain less than 30 percent of the gap in job turnover rates with human capital and family characteristics. The generosity of welfare benefits and the receipt of child support did not appear to explain much of the difference in job turnover rates. When I examine different subgroups of women, I find that on the whole the predictors for job turnover are remarkably similar. I find that family characteristics are strong predictors of job turnover. Having a new baby and having a child with a chronic health condition significantly increase the probability that a job ended. Models using interaction terms revealed that while having pre-school children significantly increased the likelihood of a job ending, the availability of employer-provided health insurance and paid leave may mitigate this effect. Copyright: Dissertation Abstracts
Bibliography Citation
Earle, Alison. Keeping the Job You Find: Understanding Job Turnover Among Welfare Recipients Who Obtain Work. Ph.D. Dissertation, Harvard University, 1998.
2. Earle, Alison
Heymann, S. Jody
What Causes Job Loss among Former Welfare Recipients: The Role of Family Health Problems
Journal of the American Medical Women's Association 57,1 (Winter 2002): 5-10
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: American Medical Women's Association
Keyword(s): Child Health; Disability; Fathers, Absence; Health Factors; Household Composition; Job Patterns; Maternal Employment; Mothers, Health; Mothers, Income; Parents, Single; Welfare

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Objective: to test whether women's or children's health status influences the likelihood that low-income single mothers experience job loss.

Methods: Using a nationally representative probability sample from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we estimated whether having a health limitation or having a child with a health limitation was associated with job loss for a sample of 783 women who had previously been on welfare.

Results: Both having a health limitation (odds ratio [OR]=1.53; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.19-1.97) and having a child with a health limitation (OR=1.36; 95% CI, 1.18-1.56) were associated with significantly increased risk of job loss among women previously on welfare. The effects remained significant after adjustment for age, education, marital status, race, age and number of children, and economic conditions.

Conclusions: Dramatic changes in welfare policy in the United States have made many single mothers living in poverty dependent on work as their sole source of income. Although studies have shown that families on welfare are more likely to have health limitations, little is known about how family health affects the ability of poor single mothers to remain employed. These results demonstrate that women with health limitations and mothers of children with health limitations are at particularly high risk of losing their jobs. Public and private policies that can help reduce job loss as a consequence of family health problems are discussed.

Bibliography Citation
Earle, Alison and S. Jody Heymann. "What Causes Job Loss among Former Welfare Recipients: The Role of Family Health Problems." Journal of the American Medical Women's Association 57,1 (Winter 2002): 5-10.
3. Earle, Alison
Heymann, S. Jody
Work, Family, and Social Class
In: How Healthy Are We? A National Study of Well-Being at Midlife. OG. Brim, C.D. Ryff, and R.C. Kessler, eds. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2004: pp. 485-513.
Also: http://midus.wisc.edu/howhealthyarewe/Chapter17.pdf
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Keyword(s): Aid for Families with Dependent Children (AFDC); Asthma; Child Care; Child Health; Maternal Employment; Welfare

Of particular interest from a policy perspective is Chapter 17, which centers on work, family, and social class. The authors find that the lower the income level, the more likely it is that work is juxtaposed with poor social support, a chronically ill child, or other caretaking responsibility. Low-income jobs do not provide flexibility in sick leave or work hours, resulting in a disproportionate number of children who suffer from unmet health and developmental needs -- and ultimately impacting our nation's health.
Bibliography Citation
Earle, Alison and S. Jody Heymann. "Work, Family, and Social Class" In: How Healthy Are We? A National Study of Well-Being at Midlife. OG. Brim, C.D. Ryff, and R.C. Kessler, eds. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2004: pp. 485-513.
4. Heymann, S. Jody
Earle, Alison
Low-Income Parents: How Do Working Conditions Affect Their Opportunity to Help School-Age Children at Risk?
American Educational Research Journal 37,4 (Winter 2000): 833-848.
Also: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1163494
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79
Publisher: American Educational Research Association
Keyword(s): Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Behavioral Problems; Benefits; Children, Academic Development; Children, Behavioral Development; Children, School-Age; Income; Income Level; Maternal Employment; Parent-School involvement; Parental Influences; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading)

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Numerous studies have documented the importance of parental involvement to children's success at school. Much of the discussion about what influences the outcomes of poor children has assumed that low-income parents have the same opportunity to help their children's education. Yet, parents' availability to be involved with their children's education is often determined by job benefits and working conditions. The goal of this article is to examine empirically whether low-income working parents face significantly different nonfinancial barriers to parental involvement than those faced by higher income working parents. In particular, we examine the working conditions faced by parents who have at least one child who is in need of help because of educational or behavioral problems. Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth--Mother and Child Surveys (NLSY) on 1,878 families where mothers worked more than 20 hr per week were analyzed. Copyright 2000 by the American Educational Research Association.
Bibliography Citation
Heymann, S. Jody and Alison Earle. "Low-Income Parents: How Do Working Conditions Affect Their Opportunity to Help School-Age Children at Risk?" American Educational Research Journal 37,4 (Winter 2000): 833-848.
5. Heymann, S. Jody
Earle, Alison
The Impact of Parental Working Conditions on School-Age Children: The Case of Evening Work
Community, Work & Family 4,3 (December 2001): 305-325.
Also: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01405110120089369
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Carfax Publishing Company ==> Taylor & Francis
Keyword(s): Child Development; Child Health; Home Environment; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Poverty; Work Hours/Schedule; Working Conditions

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Data collected in the US in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth was used to examine the effect of parental evening work on the home environment for 1,133 school children (aged 5-10 yrs). The Home Observation Measurement of the Environment (HOME) score was used to predict the child's school, developmental, and health outcomes. Results show that at least one parent working in the evening had a significantly negative effect on the home environment both for families living in poverty and those who were not living in poverty. The effect size, an 11% decrease in HOME scores when mothers worked evenings and an 8% decrease in HOME scores when fathers worked evenings, was the same order of magnitude as living in poverty. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2000 APA, all rights reserved):
Bibliography Citation
Heymann, S. Jody and Alison Earle. "The Impact of Parental Working Conditions on School-Age Children: The Case of Evening Work." Community, Work & Family 4,3 (December 2001): 305-325.
6. Heymann, S. Jody
Earle, Alison
The Impact of Welfare Reform on Parents' Ability to Care for Their Children's Health
American Journal of Public Health 89,4 (April 1999): 502-505.
Also: http://ajph.aphapublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/89/4/502
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: American Public Health Association
Keyword(s): Aid for Families with Dependent Children (AFDC); Benefits; Child Health; Welfare; Work Reentry; Working Conditions

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Objectives. Most of the national policy debate regarding welfare assumed that if middle-income mothers could balance work while caring for their children's health and development, mothers leaving welfare for work should be able to do so as well. Yet, previous research has not examined the conditions faced by mothers leaving welfare for work. Methods. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this study examined the availability of benefits that working parents commonly use to meet the health and developmental needs of their children: paid sick leave, vacation leave, and flexible hours. Results. In comparison with mothers who had never received welfare, mothers who had been on Aid to Families with Dependent Children were more likely to be caring for at least 1 child with a chronic condition (37% vs 21%, respectively). Yet, they were more likely to lack sick leave for the entire time they worked (36% vs 20%) and less likely to receive other paid leave or flexibility. Conclusions. If current welfare recipients face similar conditions when they return to work, many will face working conditions that make it difficult or impossible to succeed in the labor force at the same time as meeting their children's health and developmental needs.
Bibliography Citation
Heymann, S. Jody and Alison Earle. "The Impact of Welfare Reform on Parents' Ability to Care for Their Children's Health." American Journal of Public Health 89,4 (April 1999): 502-505.
7. Heymann, S. Jody
Earle, Alison
The Work-Family Balance: What Hurdles Are Parents Leaving Welfare Likely to Confront?
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 17,2 (Spring 1998): 313-321.
Also: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/%28SICI%291520-6688%28199821%2917:2%3C313::AID-PAM11%3E3.0.CO;2-J/abstract
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Wiley Online
Keyword(s): Aid for Families with Dependent Children (AFDC); Children; Maternal Employment; Welfare; Working Conditions

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This study empirically examines the question: How do the working conditions faced by parents leaving welfare who seek to balance working and caring for their children compare to conditions faced by parents who have not received AFDC? Similarities and differences in working conditions may play a critical role in determining whether parents are able to leave welfare for work successfully and what impact the need to work will have on their children.
Bibliography Citation
Heymann, S. Jody and Alison Earle. "The Work-Family Balance: What Hurdles Are Parents Leaving Welfare Likely to Confront?" Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 17,2 (Spring 1998): 313-321.
8. Heymann, S. Jody
Earle, Alison
Egleston, Brian
Parental Availability for the Care of Sick Children
Pediatrics 98,2 (August 1996): 226-230.
Also: http://www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/abstract/98/2/226
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: American Academy of Pediatrics
Keyword(s): Bias Decomposition; Child Care; Child Health; Health Care; Maternal Employment; Parents, Behavior; Poverty

Many parents do not have enough available paid sick time to care for their sick children during both routine and long-term illnesses. Researchers used the results of two national surveys to examine the number of family illness days, amount of paid sick time, and risk factors for inadequate paid sick time. One in three families experienced an illness in the family two weeks or more during the year. Twenty-eight percent of working mothers have no paid sick time. Mothers who live in poverty, nonwhite mothers, or those who have children with long-term illnesses are more likely to have no paid sick leave. Copyright 1996 American Academy of Pediatrics
Bibliography Citation
Heymann, S. Jody, Alison Earle and Brian Egleston. "Parental Availability for the Care of Sick Children." Pediatrics 98,2 (August 1996): 226-230.
9. Heymann, S. Jody
Penrose, Kate
Earle, Alison
Meeting Children's Needs: How Does the United States Measure Up?
Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 52,2 (April 2006): 189-215.
Also: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/merrill-palmer_quarterly/v052/52.2heymann.pdf
Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79, NLSY79
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
Keyword(s): Children, Health Care; Education; Income Level; Maternal Employment; Parenthood; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Welfare

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

The majority of parents in the United States today must balance work and caregiving responsibilities. Workplace policies and community supports markedly influence the ability of parents to care for their children's health and education while obtaining, retaining, and advancing in their jobs. The goal of this article is to analyze the dilemmas faced by working parents in general and by low-income families in particular, to present new data on how public policies in the United States compare to policies in over 150 other countries in addressing these dilemmas, and to suggest what more can be done to meet the needs of all working parents and their children across social class and residence.
Bibliography Citation
Heymann, S. Jody, Kate Penrose and Alison Earle. "Meeting Children's Needs: How Does the United States Measure Up?" Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 52,2 (April 2006): 189-215.