Welfare Use As Status Attainment

Abstract

Empirical studies of welfare dependency have highlighted differences between welfare and nonwelfare families in o;der'io explain the reasons for welfare dependency. This study discusses factors associated with welfare use in a sample of 323 adolescent mothers who were at-risk with respect to becoming welfare dependent. The article first identities the factors which distinguish between those who became welfare recipients and those who did not. Then, the interrelationships among the salient factors are discussed. The analysis suggests that factors which influence movement on and off welfare in the sample are thosc which influence women's social status in general--entering parenthood during adolescence, noncompletion of high school, rapid family building and being the female head of a family. Rathcr than being explained by a distinctive set of factors, welfare use can be explained by the same factors which influence location in the stratification system for wornen at all class levels.