Figure 3.3 CALDATA Treatment Population by Gender,
Children in Household, and Child Custody History
Source: NORC CALDATA
A similar proportion of men and women (12%) who no longer had children in the household
had at some point before treatment lost custody of children. But a much greater percentage of
women than men who had children in their household in the year before treatment had at some
time lost custody of their children (14% versus 4%). The CALDATA questionnaire did not
differentiate reasons for loss of custody, but this pattern suggests that the men mostly lost custody due to
divorce or separation decrees and often on a permanent basis, while the women lost custody due to
episodic inability or unwillingness to carry out parenting responsibilities, and that these episodes were
often temporary and the custody losses reversible.
Altogether, women with children in the household who also received welfare income made
up about 11 percent of the CALDATA population. A smaller percentage, about 6 percent, of the
treatment clients were women with children who did not receive welfare income, and clients in
the equivalent category for men made up 14 percent of the total treatment population. Looking at the
categories of men and women who had neither children in the household, welfare income, nor
other parenting concerns confirms the importance of gender in parenting concerns that was seen in the
previous table. Men in this category without welfare income or parenting concerns comprised
about 25 percent of the total treatment population while similar women make up only about 11 percent.
Demographic characteristics of CALDATA subgroups
The total treatment population was split nearly equally between white non-Hispanics and
other ethnicities, but with a sex difference: 48 percent of the women and 59 percent of the men
were black or Hispanic. Overall, clients with children in the household or receiving welfare before
treatment were about ten percentage points more likely to be black and Hispanic than those
without children or welfare receipt. Among women in the treatment population, 67 percent of those who
both lived with children and received welfare were Hispanic or black, versus only 33 percent of those with
neither welfare nor children. All major ethnic categories were about equally likely to have lost custody of
children prior to treatment.
The men in treatment were on average somewhat older than the women. About 33 percent
of men versus 22 percent of women were 40 years or older. There was little difference in the
ages of men with or without children, welfare, or parenting concerns. Among the women, however,
those with either children or welfare were appreciably younger on average than those without; only one
out of nine women (11%) with both children and welfare were 40 years or older, versus one out
of three women (33%) with neither children nor welfare. A similar gradient applied to type of
treatment: 47 percent of the women with both children and welfare were in methadone,
compared with 29 percent of women with neither children nor welfare.
Figure 3.4 presents employment and earnings characteristics of the different subgroups.
Overall, men in treatment had significantly higher labor force participation than women
57 percent of men versus 39 percent of women earned wages from employment in the year before
admission to treatment and that working men with children, especially those who did not receive
any welfare income, had higher income than any other subgroup. The data also showed that a
higher percentage of men in any of these subgroups received disability income than women,
possibly because the route to receiving AFDC support and MediCal was much easier than that to
receiving SSI or SSDI. Specific earnings figures were as follows:
- Median earnings for the year among those who had been employed were low: $6,000 for
men and $4,800 for women.
- Men and women who received welfare benefits during the year were less often employed and
earned far less income than those who were not on welfare.
- About three-fourths of men with children and without welfare benefits were employed during
the year before treatment, the highest percentage of any subgroup; this group of employed
men earned the highest sums, a median of $11,850.
Figure 3.4 CALDATA Treatment Population by Gender,
Percentage Employed, and Median Earnings
Source: NORC CALDATA
The use of particular types of drugs might be considered to have differential impacts on the
ability to care for children, child safety, and need for income support. CALDATA respondents
were asked to identify the main drug or drugs (about one-fourth of the treatment population identified
two drugs or, in some cases, more) for which they entered treatment. Despite the enormous public
concerns generated about the use of crack cocaine, this drug preparation was very far from
dominating the treatment picture in California. As indicated in Table 2.1, the three most
prevalent main drugs at admission, as identified by program records, were heroin, alcohol, and cocaine
powder (that is, cocaine formulated for injection or snorting, rather than to be smoked). From the
interviews, the following five drugs accounted for most of the main drugs mentioned: heroin, 48 percent;
alcohol, 28 percent; cocaine powder, 17 percent; amphetamines, 13 percent; crack cocaine, 11
percent; all other drugs, 5 percent. There was little variation in main drug by sex, parenting
status, or welfare receipt. The notable exception was crack; while 10 percent of all men and 11 percent
of all women reported crack as main drug, it was reported as such by 25 percent of the women and
17 percent of the men who received welfare but were not living with children. This crack-dependent,
welfare-but-no-children group comprises about 2 percent of the CALDATA treatment population.
Conclusion
We divided the CALDATA treatment population into substantial subgroups by attending to
the clients' sex, parenting status, and welfare receipt. These groups diverged somewhat on other
demographic and treatment-related characteristics. The women who received treatment were
more likely than their male couterparts to have had children in their household, express parenting
concerns as reasons for seeking treatment, and to have received welfare income prior to admission.
Women who were in the children-and-welfare subgroup (the typical AFDC recipient) were much more
likely to be Black or Hispanic than women with neither characteristic, and this subgroup was also more
likely to be younger than 40, in methadone treatment, and in receipt of little or no wage earnings
in the year prior to treatment. These differences indicate that women in treatment, like women in
general, are more often child-oriented and economically dependent on income support programs
than men, and that the women with both children and welfare are somewhat distinct from other
women. Nevertheless, the difference seems to be more in degree than in kind. In the next two chapters,
we will explore the results of treatment for these subgroups, exploring whether these conditions lead
to any differences in the results of treatment for women in general and the parenting and welfare
subgroups in particular.
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