Psychological distress, hopelessness and welfare

Abstract

This article assesses the validity of the claim that welfare in itself has deleterious psychological consequences for single mothers. The analysis compares single mothers who are recipients of AFDC with single mothers who are not recipients in terms of their depressive symptoms (as measured by the CES-D) and hopelessness (as measured by Pearlin Mastery Scale). The analysis uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth and the National Survey of Families and Households. The authors find that higher levels of both depression and hopelessness among welfare recipients can be explained by their material hardship rather than the stigma attached to welfare. They show that AFDC recipients report similar levels of depression and hopelessness as jobless non-recipients as well as low-wage non-recipients. An additional finding is that long-term welfare recipients do not experience greater emotional problems than short-term welfare recipients. Finally, the paper shows that feelings of hopelessness mediate the relationship between material deprivation and psychological distress for both recipients and non-recipients.