Determinants of Different Forms of Material Hardship in the Women's Employment Survey

PURPOSE: There is an abundance ofliterature examining trigger events leading to entrance into and exits from poverty but little research has examined entrances into and exits from specific forms of material hardship. Further, no research to date has explored how entrances into and exits from material hardship may differ among various forms of material hardship. This proposal presents a research plan to examine the following questions: Do trigger events associated with entrances into and exits from poverty predict six different forms of material hardship? Do trigger events associated with a change in food insufficiency status differ from those associated with different forms of material hardship? Finally, are changes in physical and mental health status associated with changes in different forms of material hardship? DATA: In this study, I will analyze data from the five waves of the Women's Employment Study, a panel survey of barriers to employment among 753 mothers who were receiving cash assistance in an urban Michigan county in February, 1997. Data are available for six different forms of material hardship (food insufficiency, had telephone disconnected, had gas or electricity turned off, needed to see a doctor or dentist, children did not have proper winter clothing, substandard housing) in addition to detailed household composition, income, and physical and mental health data. METHODS: I will begin by following the methodology used by Blank (1997) and Bane and Ellwood (1986) for classifying entrances and exits from poverty to six forms of material hardship. Then, I will estimate separate fixed effect models to control for time invariant unobserved heterogeneity for each of the six forms of material hardship. I conceptualize changes in specific forms of material hardship as a function of the traditional trigger events (household composition change, income change, etc.) as well as physical and mental health.