"The Enemy Within: Black-White Differences in Fatalism and Joblessness"

Stephen Petterson

University of Virginia


Abstract: There is an emergent consensus that the disposition of Black young men is an important determinant of their labor market troubles. The problem we are told is not labor market discrimination but the fatalistic attitudes (the "enemy within") held by many Black youth. This article uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to examine race differences in fatalism and joblessness. I find that the greater fatalism of Blacks is explained by their more disadvantaged background and subsequent problems in schools and the labor market, not to their distinctive cultural orientations. I also find a modest effect of measures of fatalism on subsequent joblessness and a more pronounced effect for more disadvantaged White and Black young men.




"Racial Differences in the Contribution of Wife’s Earnings to Family Income Distribution"

Namkee G. Choi

State University of New York at Buffalo


Abstract: This study, based on the 1989 interview wave of the Panel Studies of Income Dynamics (PSID) and on the 1990 Latino Sample Survey of the PSID, examines wives’ economic contribution, as compared to husbands’, among three racial/ethnic groups--non-Hispanic whites, blacks, and Hispanics. The findings show that, although white and black wives were not different in their earnings, black wives’ earnings accounted for a significantly higher percentage of the couples’ combined earnings than did the white wives’. The economic contribution of Hispanic wife-workers to their families was as significant as that of white wife-workers, because their husbands earned less than the white husbands. But, because a significantly lower proportion of Hispanic wives worked outside the home than did white or black wives, and because those who worked earned less, the family income distribution between white and Hispanic families and between black and Hispanic families became even less equal due to wives’ earnings. Policy implications are discussed.




"Going to the Source: AFDC Recipients’ Perspectives on Their Unemployment"

Michael Carley

Sociometrics Corporation

and

Donna Hardina

California State University, Fresno


Abstract: Interviews conducted with 500 AFDC-UP recipients in the rural San Joaquin Valley in California yielded information regarding the factors recipients believe are the most important impediments to finding work. Three primary factors were detected that included the lack of available work, physical disability, and the lack of adequate child care. Secondary factors are also discussed, as well as policy implications and recommendations for human service professionals.




"The Mirror Has Two Faces: Welfare Clients and Front-line Workers View Policy Reforms"

Jodi R. Sandfort

Syracuse University

Ariel Kalil

University of Michigan

and

Julie A. Gottschalk

University of Michigan


Abstract: This paper examines in-depth interviews with 45 front-line welfare workers and clients in one county to explore the perceptions that develop at the front-lines of the welfare system and to consider how these perceptions may influence new welfare reform strategies. This exploratory study finds that welfare workers utilize three distinct typologies to understand their clients. In contrast, clients believe that the welfare system is not designed to help them succeed, that many workers are personally invested in enforcing system rules, and that administrative policy is inconsistently applied. While both workers and clients believe that the new policy goal of employment is important, they both raise considerable questions about the barriers and disincentives that many clients may encounter as they try to leave welfare for work. This paper concludes by considering how these conditions may influence implementation of the most recent round of initiatives to reform the welfare system.