The Impact of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Benefit Requirements and Sanctions on Maternal Material Hardship, Mental Health, and Parental Aggravation

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Matern Child Health J
• Personal Author:
  Walker, Andrew ; Spencer, Rachael A. ; Lemon, Emily ; Woods-Jaeger, Briana ; Komro, Kelli A. ; Livingston, Melvin D.
• Description:
  Introduction
  
  Temporary Assistance for Needy Families requirements can be stress-inducing, difficult for families to complete, and may be detrimental during early life. We assessed the impact of TANF requirements on primary caregiving mothers’ experiences of material hardship, anxiety, depression, and parental aggravation in the first year of a child’s life.
  
  Methods
  
  Survey responses were selected from mothers in the Future of Families and Childhood Wellbeing Study, who received TANF in the first year of their child’s life (N = 1085).
  
  Results
  
  Survey-weighted regression models showed associations between: presence of any requirements and increased material hardship, work requirements and increased material hardship, requirement to name the father of their child and increased depression, benefit cuts and increased parental aggravation, and benefit cuts and increased material hardship.
  
  Discussion
  
  Federal and state policies should revise requirement programs to increase program accessibility and support the mental health and financial stability of mothers applying for TANF to facilitate sustainable movement into employment.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Anxiety Child Employment Female Humans Mental Health Mothers Public Assistance Surveys And Questionnaires
• Keywords:
  Benefit Requirements Maternal Mental Health Policy TANF Welfare Benefits
• Source:
  Matern Child Health J. 27(8):1392-1400
• Pubmed ID:
  37266857
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC11022155
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  R01CE003104/ACL/ACL HHSUnited States/ ; 5T32DA05055203/DA/NIDA NIH HHSUnited States/ ; R01 HD039135/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/ ; T32 DA050552/DA/NIDA NIH HHSUnited States/ ; R01 HD036916/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/ ; R01CE003104/CE/NCIPC CDC HHSUnited States/ ; R01 CE003104/CE/NCIPC CDC HHSUnited States/ ; R01 HD040421/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• Volume:
  27
• Issue:
  8
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:cb291bcb49d62fe932d3098c29144b564037a6c5fa2e3751dadbbfa52dafdd20
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/154408/cdc_154408_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 573.14 KB ]