Family Values and Work in the Mississippi Delta: Effects of Marriage and Employment on the Well-being of TANF Participants

Since 1996, the Personal Responsibility Work Opportunity and Reconciliation Act and its amendments have restructured the U.S. welfare system. Responding to the perceived welfare effects on such behavior as labor force attachment, fertility, and marriage, lawmakers used this legislation in their attempt to reshape the behavior of the nation’s poor. As a result, recent welfare reforms reflect political concerns regarding employment and family formation among low-income families.