The Effects of Collateral Consequences of Criminal Involvement on Employment, Use of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and Health.

Criminal convictions are often associated with collateral consequences that limit access to the forms of employment and social services on which disadvantaged women most frequently rely--regardless of the severity of the offense. These consequences may play an important role in perpetuating health disparities by socioeconomic status and gender. We examined the extent to which research studies to date have assessed whether a criminal conviction might influence women's health by limiting access to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and employment, as a secondary, or "collateral" criminal conviction-related consequence. We reviewed 434 peer-reviewed journal articles retrieved from three electronic article databases and 197 research reports from three research organizations. Two reviewers independently extracted data from each eligible article or report using a standardized coding scheme. Of the sixteen eligible studies included in the review, most were descriptive. None explored whether receiving TANF modified health outcomes, despite its potential to do so. Researchers to date have not fully examined the causal pathways that could link employment, receiving TANF, and health, especially for disadvantaged women. Future research is needed to address this gap and to understand better the potential consequences of the criminal justice system involvement on the health of this vulnerable population.

Nurse scientists overcoming challenges to lead transdisciplinary research teams.

Increasingly, scientific funding agencies are requiring that researchers move toward an integrated, transdisciplinary team science paradigm. Although the barriers to and rewards of conducting this type of research have been discussed in the literature, examples of how nurse investigators have led these teams to reconcile the differences in theoretical, methodological, and/or analytic perspectives that inevitably exist are lacking. In this article, we describe these developmental trajectory challenges through a case study of one transdisciplinary team, focusing on team member characteristics and the leadership tasks associated with successful transdisciplinary science teams in the literature. Specifically, we describe how overcoming these challenges has been essential to examining the complex and potentially cumulative effects that key intersections between legal, social welfare, and labor market systems may have on the health of disadvantaged women. Finally, we discuss this difficult but rewarding work within the context of lessons learned and transdisciplinary team research in relation to the future of nursing science.

A randomized controlled trial to improve health among women receiving welfare in the US: the relationship between employment outcomes and the economic recession.

The high prevalence of health conditions among U.S. women receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF, or 'welfare') impedes the ability of many in this group to move from 'welfare-to-work', and the economic recession has likely exacerbated this problem. Despite this, few interventions have been developed to improve employment outcomes by addressing the health needs of women receiving TANF, and little is known about the impact of economic downturns on the employment trajectory of this group. Using data from a recent randomized controlled trial (RCT) that tested the efficacy of a public health nursing (PHN) intervention to address the chronic health condition needs of 432 American women receiving TANF, we examine the effect of the intervention and of recession exposure on employment. We further explore whether intervention effects were modified by select sociodemographic and health characteristics. Both marginal and more robust intervention effects were noted for employment-entry outcomes (any employment, p = 0.05 and time-to-employment, p = 0.01). There were significant effects for recession exposure on employment-entry (any employment, p = 0.002 and time-to-employment, p < 0.001). Neither the intervention nor recession exposure influenced longer-term employment outcomes (employment rate or maximum continuous employment). Intervention effects were not modified by age, education, prior TANF receipt, functional status, or recession exposure, suggesting the intervention was equally effective in improving employment-entry across a fairly heterogeneous group both before and after the recession onset. These findings advance our understanding of the health and employment dynamics among this group of disadvantaged women under variable macroeconomic conditions, and have implications for guiding health and TANF-related policy.

Devolution and welfare reform: re-evaluating "success".

The passage of welfare reform shifted significant authority for welfare provision from the federal government to state and local governments. Proponents of devolution point to drastic caseload declines as evidence that state-run programs are decreasing dependency among families. However, welfare rolls in many states have remained stagnant or decreased since the start of the recession in late 2007. The uneven responsiveness of the welfare system to growing economic needs prompts the question of whether the safety net is functioning as intended. This article evaluates the literature on the state and local implementation of welfare to assess whether devolution has yielded the positive outcomes promised by proponents. Findings suggest that, under welfare reform, state and local governments are enacting diverse programs and do not appear to be limiting welfare provision in new ways to avoid becoming "welfare magnets." However, the type of program they adopt is systematically related to the racial and ethnic composition of the caseloads and the local political climate, leading to a fragmentary system in which some states and localities are more responsive than others. Social workers can help poor families in critical need of assistance by voicing these concerns at the local, state, and national levels.