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The growth of incarceration in the United States: exploring causes and consequences

This article considers the implications for prevention science of recent advances in research on family poverty and children's mental, emotional, and behavioral health. First, we describe definitions of poverty and the conceptual and empirical challenges to estimating the causal effects of poverty on children's mental, emotional, and behavioral health. Second, we offer a conceptual framework that incorporates selection processes that affect who becomes poor as well as mechanisms through which poverty appears to influence child and youth mental health. Third, we use this conceptual framework to selectively review the growing literatures on the mechanisms through which family poverty influences the mental, emotional, and behavioral health of children. We illustrate how a better understanding of the mechanisms of effect by which poverty impacts children's mental, emotional, and behavioral health is valuable in designing effective preventive interventions for those in poverty. Fourth, we describe strategies to directly reduce poverty and the implications of these strategies for prevention. This article is one of three in a special section (see also Biglan, Flay, Embry, & Sandler, 2012; Munoz, Beardslee, & Leykin, 2012) representing an elaboration on a theme for prevention science developed by the 2009 report of the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine.

/pdf/the-effects-of-poverty-on-the-mental-emotional-and-6k2cppqi4w.pdf

The Effects of Poverty on the Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Health of Children and Youth: Implications for Prevention.

This article distills and extends recent research on the economics of human development and social mobility. It summarizes the evidence from diverse literatures on the importance of early life conditions in shaping multiple life skills and the evidence on critical and sensitive investment periods for shaping different skills. It presents economic models that rationalize the evidence and unify the treatment effect and family influence literatures. The evidence on the empirical and policy importance of credit constraints in forming skills is examined. There is little support for the claim that untargeted income transfer policies to poor families significantly boost child outcomes. Mentoring, parenting, and attachment are essential features of successful families and interventions that shape skills at all stages of childhood. The next wave of family studies will better capture the active role of the emerging autonomous child in learning and responding to the actions of parents, mentors, and teachers.

/pdf/the-economics-of-human-development-and-social-mobility-2owqk9b94q.pdf

The Economics of Human Development and Social Mobility

This paper reviews the economic literature on welfare reform over the 1990s. A brief summary of the policy changes is followed by a discussion of the methodological techniques that analyze the effects of these changes on outcomes. The paper then critically reviews the econometric and experimental literature on caseload changes, labor force changes, poverty and income changes, and family formation changes. A growing body of evidence suggests that recent policy changes have influenced economic behavior and well-being. One particular set of "new-style" welfare programs seems to show especially promising results, with significantly increased work and earnings and reduced poverty.

/pdf/evaluating-welfare-reform-in-the-united-states-1xdki2e8in.pdf

Evaluating Welfare Reform in the United States

Marked: Race, Crime, and Finding Work in an Era of Mass Incarceration. By Devah Pager. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007. Pp. xiii+248. $25.00.

/pdf/how-welfare-and-work-policies-affect-employment-and-income-a-3fnsjf3bn6.pdf

How Welfare and Work Policies Affect Employment and Income: A Synthesis of Research.

/pdf/the-family-transition-program-final-report-on-florida-s-2im1puhrbd.pdf

The family transition program: Final report on Florida's initial time-limited welfare program

/pdf/a-good-start-two-year-effects-of-a-freshmen-learning-1rowlbkih0.pdf

A Good Start: Two-Year Effects of a Freshmen Learning Community Program at Kingsborough Community College.

Dan Bloom of MDRC examines policies and programs designed to help high school dropouts improve their educational attainment and labor market outcomes. So called "second-chance" programs, he says, have long provided some combination of education, training, employment, counseling, and social services. But the research record on their effectiveness is fairly thin, he says, and the results are mixed. Bloom describes eleven employment- or education-focused programs serving high school dropouts that have been rigorously evaluated over the past thirty years. Some relied heavily on paid work experience, while others focused more on job training or education. Some programs, especially those that offered paid work opportunities, generated significant increases in employment or earnings in the short term, but none of the studies that followed participants for more than a couple of years found lasting improvements in economic outcomes. Nevertheless, the findings provide an important foundation on which to build. Because of the high individual and social costs of ignoring high school dropouts, the argument for investing more public funds in services, systems, and research for these young people is strong. The paucity of conclusive evidence, however, makes it hard to know how to direct resources and magnifies the importance of ensuring that all new initiatives provide for rigorous evaluation of their impacts. Bloom concludes with recommendations for policy and research aimed at building on current efforts to expand and improve effective programs for dropouts while simultaneously developing and testing new approaches that might be more effective and strengthening local systems to support vulnerable young people. He stresses the importance of identifying and disseminating strategies to engage young people who are more seriously disconnected and unlikely to join programs. A recurring theme is that providing young people with opportunities for paid work may be useful both as an engagement tool and as a strategy for improving long-term labor market outcomes.

/pdf/programs-and-policies-to-assist-high-school-dropouts-in-the-1qt5vr2hel.pdf

Programs and Policies to Assist High School Dropouts in the Transition to Adulthood.

/pdf/jobs-first-final-report-on-connecticut-s-welfare-reform-243cce8d3x.pdf

Dan Bloom

Papers

How Welfare and Work Policies Affect Employment and Income: A Synthesis of Research.

The family transition program: Final report on Florida's initial time-limited welfare program

A Good Start: Two-Year Effects of a Freshmen Learning Community Program at Kingsborough Community College.

Programs and Policies to Assist High School Dropouts in the Transition to Adulthood.

Jobs first: Final report on Connecticut's welfare reform initiative