Welfare Reforms, Family Resources, and Child Maltreatment

This paper examines the impact of welfare reforms on several measures of child maltreatment. We use state-level data from 1990 to 1998 to examine whether recent welfare reforms have increased or reduced the incidence of reported and substantiated cases of maltreatment, the incidence of specific types of substantiated maltreatment?physical abuse and neglect?and the number of children living in out-of-home care. The welfare reforms we consider include the imposition of family caps, lifetime limits, work requirements, sanctions for non-compliance, and the restriction of welfare benefits to immigrants. We also examine how welfare benefit levels affect reports and substantiated cases of maltreatment, and whether changes in state EITC programs have affected reports and substantiated cases of maltreatment. We find strong evidence that reductions in states? welfare benefit levels increase the numbers of children in out-of-home care. We also find some evidence that strict lifetime welfare limits and tougher sanctions for noncompliance are related to higher levels of substantiated maltreatment. The evidence on family caps is mixed: family caps appear to be associated with lower numbers of cases of substantiated maltreatment, but higher numbers of children in out-of-home care. Because most of the welfare reforms we examine have been in effect for only a short period of time, these results should be considered preliminary. Overall, however, they provide some evidence that the recent welfare reforms in the U.S. may have increased child maltreatment.