Welfare reforms may have hurt some single moms’ teenage kids

Policies need to provide after-school and other support while parents work, researchers say

teen boy

BEHAVING BADLY  Welfare reforms were meant to help the next generation. But a new study suggests that in families affected by the changes, they contributed to a rise in such bad behaviors as skipping school, fighting and underage drinking —especially among teen boys.

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Welfare reforms in the 1990s were meant to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty.