Comparing 679 families enrolled in Milwaukee's New Hope Project with 678 control families, researchers found a pattern of advantages for New Hope boys. Teachers reported significantly more positive and less problematic social behavior as well as higher academic achievement. The boys expressed higher expectations of attending and finishing college and getting good jobs.
These findings emerged from a two-year evaluation of New Hope by the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation. JCPR deputy director Greg J. Duncan and an interdisciplinary team from the MacArthur Network on Successful Pathways Through Middle Childhood looked at the child and family effects.
On average, New Hope parents were more hopeful and received more practical advice and emotional support from social service programs. They made greater use of child care arrangements and after-school activities for boys and were more involved in their children's activities than the control group.
New Hope drew its participants from two of Milwaukee's poorest communities‹one predominantly black, the other primarily Hispanic‹whose incomes were at or below 150% of the poverty line. It provided benefits to participants who worked at least 30 hours a week. Those who could not otherwise find work were offered temporary full-time minimum wage community service jobs for six months.
Duncan thinks the additional resources freed up parents, some of whom had been working two jobs or significant overtime, to arrange for more supervised activi-ties with their children. This may have helped keep the boys out of trouble.
"If these findings hold in the five-year follow-up study, there could be huge potential benefits," he says. " It may redirect program designers to consider not just the labor supply questions, but what is happening to families and to kids under welfare reform."
The paper, "Can Anti-Poverty Programs Improve Family Functioning and Enhance Children's Well-Being?"may be downloaded at www.jcpr.org.