Suchergebnisse

We investigate the relationship between HIV, marriage and nonmarital sexual activity, with a focus on adolescent behaviors. We use data from 45 Demographic and Health Surveys to examine how adolescent behavior among women born from 1958 to 1965 are related to the subsequent spread of HIV over time. These women were adolescents during the early 1980s, a time when HIV had started to spread but the cause was still unknown. We find that areas with currently high HIV rates had greater female education and more premarital sexual activity in the cohorts that came of age before HIV was understood.

This paper examines the impact of welfare reforms on several measures of child maltreatment. The authors use state-level data from 1990 to 1998 to examine whether recent welfare reforms have increased or reduced the incidence of reported & substantiated cases of maltreatment, the incidence of specific types of substantiated maltreatment -- physical abuse & neglect -- & the number of children living in out-of-home care. The welfare reforms considered are the imposition of: family caps, lifetime limits, work requirements, sanctions for non-compliance, & the restriction of welfare benefits to immigrants. How welfare benefit levels & changes in state Earned Income Tax Credit programs affect reports & substantiated cases of maltreatment are also considered. Evidence strongly indicates that reductions in states' welfare benefit levels increase the number of children in out-of-home care, & some evidence indicates that strict lifetime welfare limits & 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 fewer instances of substantiated maltreatment, but more children in out-of-home care. Because most of the welfare reforms examined have been in effect for only a short time, these results should be considered preliminary. Overall, however, they provide some evidence that the recent welfare reforms in the United States may have increased child maltreatment. 7 Tables, 3 Figures, 1 Appendix, 46 References. [Copyright 2003 John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.]