This study follows a representative sample of welfare recipients over 4 years, to examine changes in the longitudinal relationships between alcohol and drug problems and service use, poverty and unemployment in the welfare reform era. A representative sample of welfare recipients throughout an entire California county are surveyed in the Spring of 2001, as they apply for federal Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF, formerly Aid to Families with Dependent Children) and locally-funded General Assistance (GA). A representative sub-sample of these recipients - including an over-sample of problem drinkers and heavy drug users - are then followed and re-interviewed at 12, 24, 36 and 48 months after baseline. The objective is to test important new hypotheses raised by welfare reform concerning how key program changes are affecting clients with alcohol and drug problems, and changing their prospects for economic mobility and addiction recovery. The project uses event history analysis to study the relationships between alcohol and drug problems and cycles of welfare dependency. It examines alcohol's role in the circumstances surrounding particular welfare exit and re-entry events, including how these events can serve as predictors of subsequent welfare returns. Further analyses seek to better understand the associations between drinking, drug use and poverty conditions as they vary together over time and in relation to welfare dependency. Finally, the project examines today's enhanced welfare interventions for alcohol and drug treatment as factors that can alter the drinking trajectories and service careers of people on aid.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
7R01AA013136-05
Application #
7070894
Study Section
Health Services Research Review Subcommittee (AA)
Project Start
2001-06-01
Project End
2006-05-31
Budget Start
2005-05-01
Budget End
2005-05-31
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2004
Total Cost
$89,065
Indirect Cost
Name
University of California San Francisco
Department
Internal Medicine/Medicine
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
094878337
City
San Francisco
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
94143
Moskowitz, David; Vittinghoff, Eric; Schmidt, Laura (2013) Reconsidering the effects of poverty and social support on health: a 5-year longitudinal test of the stress-buffering hypothesis. J Urban Health 90:175-84
Schmidt, Laura A; Zabkiewicz, Denise; Henderson, Stuart et al. (2011) On the declining health status of welfare caseloads: emerging dilemmas for serving the poor. Soc Work Public Health 26:189-211
Zabkiewicz, Denise; Schmidt, Laura A (2009) The mental health benefits of work: do they apply to welfare mothers with a drinking problem? J Behav Health Serv Res 36:96-110
Mulia, Nina; Schmidt, Laura; Bond, Jason et al. (2008) Stress, social support and problem drinking among women in poverty. Addiction 103:1283-93
Schmidt, Laura; Zabkiewicz, Denise; Jacobs, Laurie et al. (2007) Substance abuse and employment among welfare mothers: from welfare to work and back again? Subst Use Misuse 42:1069-87
Lown, E Anne; Schmidt, Laura A; Wiley, James (2006) Interpersonal violence among women seeking welfare: unraveling lives. Am J Public Health 96:1409-15
Schmidt, Laura A; Wiley, James; Dohan, Daniel et al. (2006) Changing patterns of addiction and public aid receipt: tracking the unintended consequences of welfare reform. J Health Polit Policy Law 31:945-80