Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vfjqv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T03:15:56.827Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Single Parents' Subjective Wellbeing over the Welfare to Work Transition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2012

Kay E. Cook
Kay E. Cook*
Affiliation:
Centre for Applied Social Research, RMIT University E-mail: kay.cook@rmit.edu.au
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Australian government purports that employment will improve welfare recipients' wellbeing. However, longitudinal analysis of the subjective wellbeing (SWB) of 135 single parents who were compelled to make the transition from welfare to work revealed that as work hours increased, subjective wellbeing did not improve, and in some cases worsened. Participants who were employed at baseline increased their work hours by an average of 4.75 hours per week; however no change was detected in their SWB. Conversely, participants who moved from not working at baseline to working at follow-up increased their work hours by an average of 15.84 hours per week. For these participants, the change in work hours negatively predicted 20–34 per cent of the variance in SWB. From these data, it is concluded that those parents who were already working were those who faced fewer barriers to employment compared to those who were compelled to work. Those who were previously unemployed may not have the material, social and psychological resources to make a successful work transition.

Keywords

Quality of lifewelfareemploymentmental health
Type
Articles
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , April 2012 , pp. 143 - 155
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ali, J. and Avison, W. R. (1997) ‘Employment transitions and psychological distress: the contrasting experiences of single and married mothers’, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 38, 4, 345–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Altman, J. C. and Goldberg, G. S. (2008) ‘The quality of life paradox: a study of former public assistance recipients’, Journal of Poverty, 11, 4, 71–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alzate, M. N. M. (2006) ‘Welfare recipients' quality of life: lessons from the United Nations' Human Development Index for the US welfare policy’, European Journal of Social Work, 9, 1, 85–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ames, B. D., Brosi, W. A. and Damiano-Teixeira, K. M. (2006). ‘“I'm just glad my three jobs could be during the day”: Women and work in a rural community’, Family Relations, 55, 119–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andrews, E. M. and Withey, S. B. (1976) Social Indicators of Well-Being: Americans' Perceptions of Life Quality, New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics (2008) Survey of Income and Housing – Confidentialised Unit Record Files, Technical Manual 2005–2006, Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.Google Scholar
Baker, D. and North, K. (1999) ‘Does employment improve the health of lone mothers?’, Social Science and Medicine, 49, 1, 121–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cameron, D. (2006) Speech to Google Zeitgeist Europe, http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2006/may/22/conservatives.davidcameron [accessed 30.09.2011].Google Scholar
Campbell, A., Converse, P. S. and Rodgers, W. L. (1976) The Quality of American life: Perceptions, Evaluations and Satisfactions, New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Cleaveland, C. (2005) ‘Fragile work attachment among a cohort of Philadelphia welfare recipients: menial labor and its implications', Arete, 8, 2, 54–67.Google Scholar
Commonwealth of Australia (2005a) Budget Paper No. 2: Budget Measures 2005–06, Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.Google Scholar
Commonwealth of Australia (2005b) Welfare to work: Budget 2005–06, Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.Google Scholar
Contini, D. and Negri, N. (2006) ‘Would declining exit rates from welfare provide evidence of welfare dependence in homogeneous environments?’, European Sociological Review, 23, 1, 21–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cook, K. (in press) ‘Social support in single parents' transition from welfare to work: analysis of qualitative findings’, International Journal of Social Welfare.Google Scholar
Cook, K., Davis, E., Mckenzie, H. and Smyth, P. (2009) ‘The quality of life of single mothers making the transition from welfare to work’, Women and Health, 49, 6–7, 475–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Corbett, T. (2003) ‘The new face of welfare in the US: from income transfers to social assistance?’, Social Policy and Society, 2, 2, 113–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costello, P. (2005) Budget Speech 2005–06, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra.Google Scholar
Cummins, R. (1996) ‘The domains of life satisfaction: an attempt to order chaos’, Social Indicators Research, 38, 3, 303–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cummins, R. (2000) ‘Objective and subjective quality of life: an interactive model’, Social Indicators Research, 52, 1, 55–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cummins, R. (2010) ‘SWB, homeostatically protected mood and depression: a synthesis’, Journal of Happiness Studies, 11, 1, 1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cummins, R., Eckersley, R., Pallant, J., van Vugt, J. and Misajon, R. (2003) ‘Developing a national index of SWB: the Australian Unity Wellbeing Index’, Social Indicators Research, 64, 2, 159–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cummins, R., Lau, A., Mellor, D. and Stokes, M. (2009) ‘Encouraging governments to enhance the happiness of their nation: step 1 − understand SWB’, Social Indicators Research, 91, 1, 23–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cummins, R. A. (1995) ‘On the trail of the gold standard for subjective well-being’, Social Indicators Research, 35, 2, 179–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dahl, E. and Lorentzen, T. (2003) ‘Explaining exit to work among social assistance recipients in Norway’, European Sociological Review, 19, 5, 519–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Danziger, S. K., Carlson, M. J. and Henly, J. R. (2001) ‘Post-welfare employment and psychological well-being’, Women and Health, 32, 1, 47–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J. and Griffin, S. (1985) ‘The satisfaction with life scale’, Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 1, 71–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eckersley, R. (2009) ‘Population measures of SWB: how useful are they?’, Social Indicators Research, 94, 1, 1–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esping-Anderson, G. (1990) The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism, Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Freidin, S., Watson, N. and Wooden, M. (2002) HILDA Survey Coding Framework: Confidentialised Data, Canberra: Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Services.Google Scholar
Gasper, D. (2004) Human Well-Being: Concepts and Conceptualizations, The Hague: Institute for Social Studies.Google Scholar
Gyamfi, P., Brooks-Gunn, J. and Jackson, A. P. (2001) ‘Associations between employment and financial and parental stress in low-income single black mothers’, Women and Health, 32, 1, 119–35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hartman, Y. (2005) ‘In bed with the enemy: some ideas on the connections between neoliberalism and the welfare state’, Current Sociology, 53, 1, 57–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hollar, D. (2003) ‘A holistic theoretical model for examining welfare reform: quality of life’, Public Administration Review, 63, 1, 90–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
International Wellbeing Group (2006) Personal Wellbeing Index, Melbourne: Australian Centre on Quality of Life, Deakin University.Google Scholar
Kenny, C. (2005) ‘Does development make you happy? SWB and economic growth in developing countries’, Social Indicators Research, 73, 2, 199–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kissane, R. J. and Krebs, R. (2007) ‘Assessing welfare reform, over a decade later’, Sociology Compass, 1, 2, 789–813.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larner, W. (2000) ‘Neo-liberalism: policy, ideology, governmentality’, Studies in Political Economy, 63, 5–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, K. (2009) ‘Impact of the 1996 welfare reform on child and family well-being’, Journal of Community Psychology, 37, 5, 602–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loxton, D., Mooney, R. and Young, A. F. (2006) ‘The psychological health of sole mothers in Australia’, Medical Journal of Australia, 184, 265–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marshall, T. H. (1950) Citizenship and Social Class, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Murray, C. (1996a) ‘The emerging British underclass’, in Lister, R. (ed.), Charles Murray and the Underclass: The Developing Debate, London: Institute of Economic Affairs, Health and Welfare Unit, pp. 23–53.Google Scholar
Murray, C. (1996b) Losing Ground: American Social Policy 1950–1980, New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
OECD (2007) ‘Activating the unemployed: what countries do’, OECD Employment Outlook, 20, 14, 207–42.Google Scholar
Pacek, A. and Radcliff, B. (2008) ‘Assessing the welfare state: the politics of happiness’, Perspectives on Politics, 6, 2, 267–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pavot, W. and Diener, E. (1993) ‘Review of the satisfaction with life scale’, Psychological Assessment, 5, 2, 164–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ple, B. (2000) ‘Auguste Comte on positivism and happiness’, Journal of Happiness Studies, 1, 4, 167–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pocock, B., Elton, J., Preston, A., Charlesworth, S., MacDonald, F., Baird, M. et al. (2008) ‘The impact of “work choices” on women in low paid employment in Australia: a qualitative analysis’, Journal of Industrial Relations, 50, 3, 475–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Putnam, R. D. (2000) Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Ravallion, M. and Lokshin, M. (1999) Subjective Economic Welfare, Washington, DC: World Bank, Development Research Group.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Renn, D., Pfaffenberger, N., Platter, M., Mitmansgruber, H., Cummins, R. and Höfer, S. (2009) ‘International well-being index: the Austrian version’, Social Indicators Research, 90, 2, 243–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reschke, K. L. and Walker, S. K. (2006) ‘Mothers’ child caregiving and employment commitments and choices in the context of rural poverty: affilia’, Journal of Women and Social Work, 21, 3, 306–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riemer, F. J. (1997) ‘Quick attachments to the workforce: an ethnographic analysis of a transition form welfare to low-wage jobs’, Social Work Research, 21, 4, 225–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saunders, P. (2002) The Ends and Means of Welfare, Port Melbourne, VIC: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Scott, E. K., Edin, K., London, A. and Kissane, R. (2004) ‘Unstable work, unstable income: implications for family well-being in the era of time-limited welfare’, Journal of Poverty, 8, 1, 61–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Social Inclusion Unit (2009) A Stronger, Fairer Australia, Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.Google Scholar
Veenhoven, R. (2000) ‘Well-being in the welfare state: level not higher, distribution not more equitable’, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, 2, 1, 91–125.Google Scholar
Veenhoven, R. (2002) ‘Why social policy needs subjective indicators’, in Hagerty, M. R., Vogel, J. and Møller, V. (eds.), Assessing Quality of Life and Living Conditions to Guide National Policy, New York: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 11, 33–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Veenhoven, R. (2007) ‘Sociological theory of subjective well-being’, in Eid, M. (ed.), The Science of Subjective Well-Being, New York: Guilford Press, pp. 44–61.Google Scholar
Zabkiewicz, D. (2010) ‘The mental health benefits of work: do they apply to poor single mothers?’, Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 45, 1, 77–87.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed