TEENAGE PARENT DEMONSTRATION

ABOUT THIS REPORT

Moving Teenage Parents into Self-Sufficiency:  Lessons from Recent Demonstrations summarizes recent research on three programs for teenage parents on welfare and then presents lessons that may be useful to state and local agencies implementing the teenage parent provisions of the 1996 welfare reform law.

DISCLAIMER

This synthesis of recent evaluations was prepared for the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), under contract HHS-100-86-0045.  Since researchers conducting research under government sponsorship are encouraged to express their own judgments freely, this report does not necessarily represent the official opinion or policy of the Department of Health and Human Services.  The views expressed are solely those of the authors.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This report builds on a series of previous reports on the Teenage Parent Demonstration (TPD) evaluation and places the evaluation findings in the context of several other evaluation studies.  Many people have contributed in significant ways to the Teenage Parent Demonstration evaluation:

• Reuben Snipper of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), Project Officer for the evaluation, and Nancye Campbell and Judith Reich of ACF, Project Officers for the demonstration programs, provided helpful guidance throughout the design and implementation of the evaluation.
• Howard Rolston of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) provided invaluable support of both the demonstration projects and the evaluation.
• William Prosser of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation provided guidance at various points during the first phase of the evaluation, especially in the design and implementation of the special substudies on child care issues.
• Melba McCarty, Yvonne Johnson, and Frank Ambrose oversaw the demonstration programs and provided much of the information on the programs -- Project Advance in Chicago, Teen Progress in Newark, and Teen Progress in Camden, respectively.
• Janet DeGraaf, Bonnie Mecanko, David Heinz, and Lydia Davis-Barret of the New Jersey Department of Human Services, John Bock of the New Jersey Department of Labor, and Denise Simon, Dan Davis, David Gruenenfelder, Charlie Mugler, and Susan Fitzpatrick of the Illinois Department of Public Aid were instrumental in the design, implementation and oversight of the programs and were extremely helpful during the information assembly process.

Many staff at Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., made critical contributions to the evaluation.

• Alan Hershey, co-investigator and deputy project director of the first phase of the evaluation, worked with the programs to ensure that they were implemented in accordance with the demonstration design, directed the process and implementation analysis, and led the cost analysis.
• Denise Polit, co-investigator for the first phase of the evaluation, made important contributions to the evaluation design, directed an in-depth study of a subsample of program participants, and collaborated on the report on service needs and use.
• Myles Maxfield designed and oversaw the development of the client tracking systems.
• Charles Nagatoshi provided technical assistance to the programs and monitored their operations.
• Walter Nicholson collaborated on the first report on program impacts. Phillip Gleason played a key role in the analysis of service needs and use.
• Marsha Silverberg contributed to the cost analysis and the analysis of the early impacts of the programs on child care needs and use.
• Anne Gordon, Margaret Strain, and Peter Schochet conducted special child care studies.
• Anne Bloomenthal, Sandra Scott, West Addison, Cynthia Butchley, Lynn Leubusher, Dexter Chu, Catherine Brown, Lara Hulsey, and Tim Novak constructed data files, developed analysis programs, and prepared tabulations and graphs for the reports.
• John Homrighausen, Cindy Pressler, and Todd Ensor directed the survey data collection, with important assistance from Susan Sprachman, Barbara Rogers, Jim Cashion, Janet Buffer, and Wendy Offery.
• Mike Watts and Linda Bandeh developed the Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing program for the second follow-up survey.
• Doreen Ambrose, Monica Capizzi, Cindy McClure, Debra Jones, Marjorie Mitchell, Jill Miller, and Jennifer Baskwell produced the reports and Joanne Pfleiderer, Patricia Ciaccio, and Roy Grisham edited the reports.

Finally, the mothers in the sample and their children patiently answered our many questions.

We gratefully acknowledge these contributions to the Teenage Parent Demonstration evaluation and accept sole responsibility for any errors or omissions in this report.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Ellen Eliason Kisker is a senior researcher at Mathematica Policy Research.  Her research focuses on welfare, child care, and early childhood development programs.

Rebecca A. Maynard is Trustee Professor of Education and Social Policy, University of Pennsylvania, and a senior fellow at Mathematica Policy Research.  She studies welfare and education policies and teenage pregnancy.

Anu Rangarajan is a senior economist at Mathematica Policy Research whose work focuses on welfare policies.

Kimberly Boller is a research psychologist at Mathematica Policy Research who studies child development programs.

Where to?

[ Main Page for this Report | Summary | Lessons Learned ]
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