Home
Tags
No Tags
Welfare Reform and Higher Education: The Impact of Postsecondary Education on Self-sufficiency
| Title: | Welfare Reform and Higher Education: The Impact of Postsecondary Education on Self-sufficiency |
| Author: | Twitchell, Sarah Jo |
| Description: | This study examined the impact of involvement in post-secondary education on family functioning levels of welfare recipients. Astin’s theory of student involvement (1999) and Input-Environment-Output model (1993) provided the theoretical structure to determine what input and other environmental variables influenced family functioning levels. The study utilized a combination of secondary data supplemented with data gathered on 197 welfare recipients from Lucas County in Northwest Ohio. A little over one third of the respondents reported involvement in post-secondary education. Along with examining frequencies and percentages, three analyses were performed in the study: T-tests, correlations, and multiple regression analysis. T-tests showed that a significant relationship existed between the dependent variable, total Family Development Matrix (FDM) scores of the respondents, and the primary independent variable, involvement in higher education. T-tests also determined that within the FDM, the following family function indicators were significantly different for those involved in post secondary education than for those who were not: transportation, health care, social support, and childcare. Both level of education and involvement in postsecondary education were found to have positive correlations with the total FDM. Multiple regression analysis found level of education to be a significant predictor of higher FDM scores. Three implications for policy and practice emerged from the findings: redefining self-sufficiency more broadly than as simply being off cash assistance; selecting a standardized instrument that can accurately and efficiently measure this broader definition of self-sufficiency; and encouraging legislation that allows welfare recipients to pursue postsecondary education. Three conclusions rose out of the findings and the interpretation of those findings: self sufficiency can be attributed to a number of different variables that are in relationship with each other; exposure to postsecondary education, not degree attainment, is key to increasing self-sufficiency; the indirect benefits that welfare recipients receive as college students are immeasurable. The findings in this study provide data to legislators, human services administration, and higher education leadership for use in examining how policies might be changed to allow increased opportunity for welfare recipients to pursue postsecondary education as a means to greater self-sufficiency. |
| Permanent Link: |
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1127816883
http://hdl.handle.net/2374.OX/19331 |
| Date: | 2004 |
Files in this item
| Files | Size | Format | View |
|---|---|---|---|
|
There are no files associated with this item. |
|||