Colleen M. Heflin

Food Insufficiency and Physical and Mental Health in a Longitudinal Survey of Welfare Recipients

Food insufficiency is a significant problem in the United States, and poor African American women with children are at especially high risk. An inadequate household food supply can potentially affect the well-being of household members, but it is difficult to distinguish the effects of food insufficiency from risk factors for poor health that are also common among the food insufficient, such as poverty. We examined food insufficiency and physical and mental health among African American and white women (n = 676) who were welfare recipients in 1997. Controlling for common risk factors, women who reported food insufficiency in both 1997 and 1998 were more likely to report fair or poor health at the later date. Food insufficiency in 1998 was significantly associated with meeting the diagnostic screening criteria for recent major depression. Food insufficiency at both times and in 1998 only was related to womens sense of mastery. These findings add to growing evidence that household food insufficiency is associated with poor physical and mental health.

Work Trajectories, Income Changes, and Food Insufficiency in a Michigan Welfare Population

This article examines determinants of changes in food insufficiency status over time in a Michigan welfare sample. The studied determinants include individual constraints on coping abilities, work‐related demands, and resources of households. Analyses use logistic regressions based on data from four waves of the Women’s Employment Study. Findings suggest that, without controlling for unobserved heterogeneity, hours worked, transportation expenses, and measures of coping ability are associated with food insufficiency. However, conditional fixed‐effect logistic regression models suggest that having one or more mental health problems and a low level of financial resources are associated with reported food insufficiency.

Community Social Capital and Entrepreneurship

The literature on social capital and entrepreneurship often explores individual benefits of social capital, such as the role of personal networks in promoting self-employment. In this article, we instead examine social capital’s public good aspects, arguing that the benefits of social trust and organization memberships accrue not just to the individual but to the community at large. We test these arguments using individual data from the 2000 Census that have been merged with two community surveys, the Social Capital Benchmark Survey and the General Social Survey. We find that individuals in communities with high levels of social trust are more likely to be self-employed compared to individuals in communities with lower levels of social trust. Additionally, membership in organizations connected to the larger community is associated with higher levels of self-employment, but membership in isolated organizations that lack connections to the larger community is associated with lower levels of self-employment. Further analysis suggests that the entrepreneurship-enhancing effects of community social capital are stronger for whites, native-born residents, and long-term community members than for minorities, immigrants, and recent entrants.

Kin Effects on Black-White Account and Home Ownership

This article combines the literature on kin networks and racial disparities in asset ownership. Specifically, we examine the effects of kin characteristics—sibling poverty and parental poverty, education, and occupation—on financial account ownership and home ownership. We find that kin matter for these outcomes. Having a poor sibling and coming from a poor family are negatively associated with account and home ownership while mother’s education has a positive effect. Separate analyses by race suggest that kin characteristics matter for both Blacks and Whites for account ownership, but for home ownership they are significant for Whites only. Racial differences in kin characteristics account for over half of the racial gap in account ownership, but are not important for understanding the racial gap in home ownership. The significant effects of extended family characteristics on socioeconomic well-being make a case for the inclusion of kin variables in the growing literature on wealth disparities among Blacks and Whites.

Dynamics of Material Hardship in the Women's Employment Study

An abundance of literature examines the dynamics of poverty, but little research considers the dynamics of material hardship. This work analyzes data from a welfare sample to determine how common experiences of material hardship are over time, if some forms of material hardship are more common than others, and if women experience multiple hardships. Data come from five waves of the Women’s Employment Study and measure six different forms of material hardship: food insufficiency, telephone disconnection, utility disconnection, unmet medical needs, improper winter clothing, and housing problems. This article finds that cross‐sectional reports of material hardship are comparable with those found in other studies but that cumulative levels of hardship increase over time. Women also are likely to experience multiple forms of hardship over the observation period. This suggests that overall quality of life within these households is quite low at some point during the transition from welfare to work.

Work-related disability, veteran status, and poverty: Implications for family well-being

The authors examine the interrelationships between work-related disability, veteran, and poverty statuses using data from the 1992–2004 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation. They find that households with nondisabled veterans present have a lower likelihood of poverty, but that advantage is severely eroded when the veteran or another family member has a work-limiting disability. Nevertheless, all veteran households have substantially lower odds of poverty than disabled nonveteran households, which have the highest poverty rate (32.53%). Veteran and disability statuses interact at the household level in ways that contribute to substantial variability in household-level poverty, which has implications for all household members.

Economic Well-Being among Older-Adult Households: Variation by Veteran and Disability Status

This analysis uses data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) to examine whether veteran and disability statuses are jointly associated with poverty and material hardship among households that include an older adult. Compared to households that do not include a person with a disability or veteran, disabled nonveteran households are more likely to be in poverty and to experience home hardship, medical hardship, and bill-paying hardship. Disabled veteran households are not significantly different in terms of poverty, but exhibit the highest odds of home hardship, medical hardship, bill-paying hardship, and food insufficiency. The implications for social work practice are discussed.

Clients’ Perspectives on a Technology-Based Food Assistance Application System

The expansion of e-government is reshaping how disadvantaged groups access the social safety net, yet very little is known about clients’ experiences with modernized systems. We examine client experiences applying to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program in one state that has recently moved to an “online-only” system. Overall, more than half of the 26 applicants stated a preference for the traditional caseworker model, even though some of them identified benefits to the modernized, online system. Based on respondents’ experiences, we identified four points where the system proved problematic for applicants: (a) Accessing the call centers; (b) completing an eligibility interview; (c) using the paperless system to submit documentation; and (d) obtaining personal assistance to complete the application materials. Findings are relevant for state administrators of social safety net programs, e-government researchers in the public management and public administration fields, and social stratification researchers interested in how institutional processes influence patterns of inequality.

The Geography of Need: Identifying Human Service Needs in Rural America.

Given the recent economic crisis and the accompanying funding cuts across social service programs, it is helpful to observe the geographic distribution of demographic characteristics and economic conditions that together create a human service needs profile. The authors provide a conceptual framework for a systematic analysis of county characteristics and demonstrate that rural areas of America have higher levels of needs and more complex needs than do metropolitan areas. This suggests that human service strategies that are successful in metropolitan areas may not translate well to nonmetropolitan areas.

The Child and Adult Care Food Program and Food Insecurity

The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) provides cash reimbursement to family day care, child-care centers, homeless shelters, and after-school programs for meals and snacks served to children. Despite young children’s known vulnerability to fluctuations in nutritional intake, prior literature has largely neglected the contributions of the CACFP to reducing household food insecurity. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Birth Cohort (ECLS-B), we examine the association between CACFP provider participation and food insecurity, controlling for the nonrandom selection process into child-care centers that participate in CACFP. We find that accessing child care through providers that participate in the CACFP results in a small reduction in the risk of household food insecurity. Given the known cognitive and health consequences associated with food insecurity during early childhood, our results indicate the importance of improving access to the CACFP.