Work, welfare, and young children's health and behavior in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study

Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, we investigate the effects of welfare receipt and employment on the health and behavioral outcomes of 3-year-old children whose mothers received welfare during the course of the child's life. Employed mothers who are no longer receiving welfare report better health and behavioral outcomes for their children; however, OLS and instrumental variable analyses suggest that these advantages are largely explained by the characteristics of mothers who make a successful transition to employment, rather than by work per se. Children of mothers who had left welfare but were not currently employed had similar behavioral outcomes to children of mothers on welfare, but the latter were more likely to be in poor health.