Disentangling the Dynamics of Family Poverty and Child Disability: Does Disability Come First?

Robert Pollak for helpful comments. The passage of welfare reform in 1996 inexorably altered the relationship between the U.S. government and what are arguably its least able citizens. Not only were adults in families receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) now required to begin working a stipulated number of hours per week, but the federal legislation made no accommodations for families whose children, due either to chronic illness or disability, required additional parental time and resources. The impact of federal welfare reform legislation on these families has been the subject of ongoing examination. This paper provides background for the analysis of such policy implications by analyzing the causal relationship between poverty and child disability. Despite a plethora of research on the general association between poverty and child disability, the direction of causation between these two factors remains unclear. We don’t know whethe