ERIC ED367929: Lives of Promise, Lives of Pain: Young Mothers after New Chance.

156 Pages·2.8 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
CG 025 306
ED 367 929
Quint, Janet C.; And Others
AUTHOR
Lives of Promise, Lives of Pain: Young Mothers after
TITLE
New Chance.
Manpower Demonstration Research Corp., New York,
INSTITUTION
N.Y.
PUB DATE
Jan 94
NOTE
156p.
Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, Three
AVAILABLE FROM
Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016.
Non-Classroom Use (055)
PUB TYPE
Guides
MF01/PC07 Plus Postage.
EDRS PRICE
*Adolescents; Community Colleges; *Dropouts; Early
DESCRIPTORS
Parenthood; Employment; *Mothers; One Parent Family;
Two Year Colleges; *Young Adults
*New Chance
IDENTIFIERS
ABSTRACT
This monograph reports the findings of a study based
on interviews with 50 young mothers who participated in a national
research and demonstration program called New Chance. It explains
that New Chance aims to increase the employment, economic
self-sufficiency, and general well-being of young women on Aid to
Families with Dependent Children who are high school dropouts, and to
enhance the learning and development of their children as well.
Chapter 1 supplies a context for understanding the report and its
findings. After a statistical overview of sample members' activities
after receiving their high school equivalency certificate, Chapter 2
explores the meaning of progress for this group of young women.
Chapters 3 through 5 cover the experiences of these young women in
the workplace, at school, and in their personal lives. Chapter 6
considers the women's backgrounds before they joined New Chance, then
examines their experiences in the program, and, finally, considers
their activities after leaving New Chance. Chapter 7 takes note of
the significant degree of variation within the sample and its
implications for program design. Chapter 8 reviews the study's key
findings and then suggests lessons and possible directions for
research, programs, and policies that arise from these findings.
(NB)
***********************************************************************
Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
from the original document.
***********************************************************************
PAPI
114.477Zr
'yes of ro ise,
'yes of Pa*
Young Mothers
Janet C. Quint
After New Chance
Judith S. Musick
with Joyce A. Ladner
U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Office Ot Educahona. Research and frnorowerneni
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION
CENTER IERICI
Th.5 docurnenl nas been eDroduced as
ece,vecl rroo, IhP Person Or olyao.731.0r,
Manpower
January 1994
cpnahng
Mno, cmanges ,,ave nee., ,nade 10 ,,,O,Ove
Demonstration
eproduct,on oualay
0
op.n.ons stated ,n1hiSO0flu
P0n15 Of v.e
Research
efhylal
,^ent C1C nOt ^ecessa,..y ,CP,P5Prif
OF RI Doso.on
Corporation
PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS
MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY
/LC
MDRC
i\1
I
t' 'S
2
TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
1
r
'
INFORMATION CENTER IERIC)"
t
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
RUDOLPH G. PENNER
RICILARI) P. NATHAN,
Chairman
Dinboor ()) Ecminniit Studic,
Rt)ckcfelIcr Co Huge
!'myttst.
Uoup
ttiei sity
Polic%
Sian.. I
Nlls: Y(11 k
KI,NR; piti \ lam i(
1()1 .
of (.(Acrimient
FRANKLIN D. RAINES
Vi« Chairman
PAUL I. O'NEILL, I imsurr,
\lac
Chan man and CEO
lautiuuc
Alt.( ,1
ROBERT SOLOW
Pl(lfCNNUI
Chummin tanrotto
EI..I GINZBER(;,
l)irct «ti
:cluel tor tlic
I lit. I.
GILBERT STEINER
I Inman Rt.mmt.«.
Scilittt Et.11tnt
(.1...11.
Ii tittkin._;\
MI'I'CIIELL SVIRII)OFF
uttil Sento! 1.(.1Im
Pi()Icsmtt I..int.i ii tu
t.Ityincin
REBECCA M. BLANK
Ntl% St Iitittl It)i Suit
taw Prt)Icsmti of Ewnoinic,,
Ass(
WILLIAM JULIUS WILSON
n
"I((fi
1.11(.\ Fit,\,1
nivel ,,.11\
I
ANTONIA HERNANDEZ
Puldit PIlt
S()t itult)g\
( ) I
Pi c.iticiit and (
nkt.I.,11.. ()I (.1m,igt)
I)elciist. and
iii .\incrican
NIt.x1(
FthicatitmaI Fund
WILLIAM S. WOODSIDE
.ittl.
(.1i.iii Man.
.11(
(
`,1--
I
.
ALAN KISTLER
(1.().
Pi tNiticiii
PI WW1 It .1
C A)!
Dr\ cittpillum
Human
.\I
I(
(
I
I
RIC:II:1AI) J. NIL'RNAN".
JUI)ITII NI. (;UERON
Pi(d,
I.t Itit aiitm
PitmtIcin
(11
antm
.1amian. St hind
it
1.1"1")"" """'"I's" d""ii Ri'st"(
liii
cisitt
itt
fit till
I
iti
Il
( .1
N1DRC
BEST COPY AVAILABLE
Pain
Lives of Promise, Lives of
Young Mothers
After New Chance
Janet C. Quint
Judith S. Musick
nith Joyce A. Ladner
.\\
Manpolter
January 1994
Demonstration
Research
Corporation
N I 1 ) RC
Funders of the New Chance Demonstration
U.S. Depatzment of Labor
The Bush Foundation
Ford Foundation
Foundation for Child Development
W. K. Kellogg Foundation
Exxon Corporation
DeWitt WallaceReader's Digest Fund
The Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A.
Meyer Memorial Trust
Koret Foundation
The UPS Foundation
ARCO Foundation
Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
GE Foundation
The Pew Charitable Trusts
National Commission for Emphtyment l'olicy
Stuart Foundations
Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation
William T. Grant Foundation
The Allstate Foundation
Ti e Skillman Foundation
Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation
Smith Richardson Foundation, Inc.
Honeywell Foundation
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
Grand Metnpttlitan Rmndation
AT&T Foundation
Kaiser I termanente
Dissemination of MDRC publications is also supported by MDRC's Public Policy Outreach
funders:
Ford Foundation
Aetna Foondation, Inc.
The Ambrose Monett Foundation
Exxon Corporation
The Alcoa Foundation
Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, Inc.
Metropolitan Life Foundation
The findings and conchisions presented herein do not 'necessarily represent the official
positions or policies of the funders.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Quint, Janet C.
Livu ,. of promi,e, live. of pain : young mother. atter new chance ,' Janet C Quint, With
S. Mu,ick, with Joyci... A. Ladner.
p.
Include, hibthigraphical reference..
Teenage iniqhet.Service, for --Din ted State,. 2. Teenage in( ithel
Sc titI o inditii in. --
United State...3. Welfare recipient. -Service, tor-United State, 4 Child welfare -I.Inited
State..
I. Miiick, ludith S.
II. Ladner, love(' A.
III. Title.
Igto
11/700.S.Q5S
362.82'44-dc20
47175
CIP
Copyright Cc lo(LI by the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Part I
Introduction
3
1
The New Chance Model and Its Policy Context
5
The New Chance Research Agenda and the Origins
9
of This Study
12
The Study Methodology
The Demographic Characteristics and Representativeness
14
of the Study Respondents
Part II
The Road to Self-Sufficiency
21
2
22
Criteria of Progress
Personal Factors
31
Additional Observations Regarding Movement
43
Toward Self-Sufficiency
46
From Welfare to Work and (Sometimes) Back
3
47
Young Women's Reasons for Leaving Employment
Problems of the Workplace
50
Work vs. Welfare: The Young Women's Attitudes
58
Preparation for the Workplace: What the Findings Suggest
61
64
College: A Learning Experience
4
65
College Dropouts
72
The Students Who Stayed Enrolled
74
College: Some Concluding Reflections
77
Family Matters
5
77
Pregnancy and Childbearing
83
Personal and Rimily Crises
iv
Corttents
Part III
Going with the Tide
6
91
Life Before New Chance: The Young Mothers' Own Mothers
and the Consequences of Poor Parenting
92
New Chance: Intervention or Interruption
95
Life After New Chance
101
Different Groups, Different Needs
7
107
The Detoured
108
The Derailed
115
Part IV
Summary and Conclusions
125
8
The Key Findings
125
Implications and Recommendations
130
Appendix
139
References
143
Selected MDRC Publications
145
Preface
This monograph speaks to a mimber of interrelated issues that are prominent on
the domestic policy agenda: reducing out-of-wedh)ck births to teen nlothers,
designing programs that successfully prepare young school dropouts for work,
reducing welfare and encouraging work, changing schools and community colleges
assisting the
so that they will be more successful with disadvantaged students, and
children of especially disadvantaged young mothers.
It is being published at a time of heightened interest in welfare reform, a time
when the public is angry and eager for simple solutions. At such a time, it is easy
to think in abstractions and to forget the complexity of young lives lived in poverty.
This study brings us the voices of young mothers who were on welfare and who
enrolled in New Chance, a comprehensive program of education, employment-
related services, life skills instruction, parenting education, and child care. As is true
of the other activities in the New Chance Demonstration, this monograph would not
have been possible without the generous support of the funders listed at the front
of this document. The study was not undertaken to inform the debate on welfare
reform per se, but to help explain why New Chance would or would not succeed
in moving the young mothers and their children toward the program's goal of sel f-
sufficiency. It sought to get behind average numbers and portray the complexity of
the people in the program.
We hear the young women talk abtnit why they dislike welfare and want to be
self-sufficient but; in most cases, stay on the rolls; why they want to work, yet often
leave their lobs; and why they entered New Chance, but often attended irregularly
disappointments in,
or dropped out. We learn about their aspirations for, and
community college; about their feelings for their children, and why they frequently
have more; about the importance of the young mothers' own mothers and the ways
in which poverty and poor parenting intersect to shape the young mothers' lives
and to make them overreliant on often unreliable men. We view the environments
in which children on welfare are growing up and begin to understand %vhy, despite
their many efforts, the young mothers often fail. Finally, we see a diverse group of
who will
young women--some very disadvantaged, and others less so; some
probably spend many N,Tars on welfare, and others who are making strides toward
self-support.
The young women portrayed in this monograph inspire us with their attempts
of the
to succeed, but dismay us with their frequent failures. We are reminded
poverty of their lives, their lack of support and resources, their youth, and the
human dramas likely to accompany any effort to change our welfare system
radically.
Listening to them, simple solutions do not seem so simple.
ludith NI. Gueron
President
Acknowledgments
Our greatest debt is to the young women who participated in the interviews On
which this study is based. They welcomed us into their homes and responded to our
questions thoughtfully, candidly, and with good humor. We hope we have
presented their ideas and feelings, strengths and weaknesses, dreams and struggles
in a way that is faithful to their perceived experience. We also hope that this study
illuminates some of the obstacles in the young women's paths as they try to make
a good life for themselves and their children and suggests ways in which public
policy and programs can help clear away these barriers.
The program coerdinators and case managers at the five New Chance sites from
which respondents were drawn were helpful to us in innumerable ways They spent
time talking to us about the young women's in-program experiences, gave us access
to their case files, provided us with updated address information on the study
subjects, and in several cases got in touch with potential interviewees to determine
their interest in participating. To preserve the study subjects' confidentiality, we
have opted not to identify individual staff members, but we want them to know
how thankful we are for their assistance.
At MDRC, Bob Granger played a major role in the deveh)pment and completion
of the study. He brought the authors together, and we are grateful for his vise
guidance, enomragement, and attention. Judith Gueron, Judi th Greissman, Rob Ivry,
Suzanne Lynn, and Marilyn Price offered helpful comments on earlier drafts of the
manuscript.
The manuscript also benefited from close readings and thoughtful suggestions
from Gilbert Steiner, Frank F. Furstenberg, Jr., Lorraine Klermanind Denise Po lit,
and from the editorial skills of Phoebe Hoss. Conversations with Pam Stevens and
Ruby Morton Gourdine helped us sharpen and clarify our thinking.
At the Temple University Institute for Survey Research, which is 0 mducting the
Peter Buffum supplied survey data helpful
New Chance survey effort,
for
understanding the young women's lives and ointact information that assisted us in
locating some possible interviewees.
Finally, we appreciate the contributions of many people to the pnidu( ti.sn of both
the interview transcripts and the study itself. Shirley Pelt ensured a smooth flow of
faxes and other materials to New York (Janet Quint) inlin Chicago (ludith Musick),
as did Barbara Wiggins from Washington, D.C. (Joyce Ladner). At NIDRC, Fran
Derocher supervised a cadre of interview transcribers. Maggie Sara hek reviewed
several of the transcripts against the recorded interviews and offered perceptive
comments ab(int the interview subjois. Patt Pontevolpe and Stephanie Cowell
produced the final text and tables, and Michael
k Vilde cat-Clay checked the
completed document.
The Authors
vii
Part I
7
1 0