Middle school children's perceptions on welfare and poverty: An exploratory, qualitative study

Her research interests include welfare reform, work and family policy, and comparative international family policy with primary specialization in Germany and Poland. This study was undertaken to determine how middle school children assess the effects of welfare reform on their daily lives. The study consisted of thirty interviews with children and their mothers recruited from a middle school in a large, metropolitan area. From the children's perspective, multiple jobs and evening/night hours interfered with the child-parent relationship. Other consequences included grades going down and not getting to school on time. All the children stated that mothers should work, but most children felt mothers should only work when their children are in school. Welfare and poverty were issues about which children were teased at school. © 2002 Human Sciences Press, Inc.