TEENAGE PARENT DEMONSTRATION
TEENAGE PARENT DEMONSTRATION
The Teenage Parent Demonstration
(TPD) tested
a mandatory program designed to move first-time teenage mothers on welfare
(AFDC) into self-sufficiency.
The Teenage Parent Demonstration (TPD) operated in Camden, Newark, and the south side of Chicago between late 1987 and mid 1991. All teens who applied for Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) during the demonstration period in these sites and who were randomly assigned to the demonstration program were required to participate in education, job training, or employment-related activities, as appropriate, or be sanctioned until they did participate. The sites paid for or provided child care, transportation, and other services so that such needs were not a barrier to participation in required activities. Each teen was assigned to a case manager who developed a self-sufficiency plan, guided the teen to needed services, and monitored her progress in required activities. The sites provided initial workshops and other services to prepare the teens for later education, training, and employment-related activities. Program costs were modest: averaging $2,200 per year per participant including community-provided services, such as alternative educational services, but not counting the AFDC grant nor the cost of regular high school attendance.
Almost 6,000 teens participated in the demonstration. For evaluation purposes, half the incoming teens were randomly assigned to receive regular services that non-demonstration teens would have received (the control group) and half received the enhanced services described above (the treatment group). Data for the evaluation included site observations, interviews with program staff, program data, state records data, baseline interviews, focus groups, in-depth semi-structured interviews, case reviews with program staff, and two follow-up surveys of the teens -- one conducted 2.5 years after the teens enrolled in the demonstration and the other about 6.5 years after enrollment. The evaluator conducted special studies on child care use and supply, in-home assessments of the parenting skills of the young mothers and the well-being of their oldest child, surveys of the case managers and site staff, and regular site monitoring visits.
The Demonstration was funded by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The evaluation of the TPD was funded jointly by ACF and the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE). Mathematica Policy Research conducted the evaluation.
The full title of the TPD is Demonstration of Innovative Approaches to Reducing Long-Term AFDC Dependency Among Teenage Parents. The Evaluation Project Officer was Reuben Snipper, ASPE; the Demonstration Project Officer was Nancye Campbell, ACF. The contract number was HHS 100-86-0045.
How to Obtain Printed Copies of Reports
Home Pages:
Human Services Policy
(HSP)
Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
(ASPE)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS)
Last updated on 02/03/2004