Biomedical subjects

Madeline Zavodny

Publications and source records attributed to Madeline Zavodny.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2004

The impact of welfare reform on marriage and divorce.

The goal of the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act was to end needy parents' dependence on governmental benefits, in part by promoting marriage. The prereform welfare system was widely believed to discourage marriage because it provided benefits primarily to single mothers. However, welfare reform may have actually decreased the incentives to be married by giving women greater financial independence via the program's new emphasis on work. This article uses vital statistics data on marriages and divorces during 1989-2000 to examine the role of welfare reform (state waivers and implementation of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) and other state-level variables on flows into and out of marriage. The results indicate that welfare reform has led to fewer new divorces and fewer new marriages, although the latter result is sensitive to specification and the choice of data.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2004

Fertility and parental consent for minors to receive contraceptives.

OBJECTIVES: I examined the effect of imposing a requirement for parental consent before minors can receive medical contraceptives. METHODS: Birth and abortions among teens, relative to adults, in a suburban Illinois county that imposed a parental consent requirement in 1998 were compared with births and abortions in nearby counties during the period 1997-2000. RESULTS: The relative proportion of births to women under age 19 years in the county rose significantly compared with nearby counties, whereas the relative proportion of abortions to women under age 20 years declined insignificantly, with a relative increase in the proportion of pregnancies (births and abortions) to young women in the county. CONCLUSIONS: Imposing a parental consent requirement for contraceptives, but not abortions, appears to raise the frequency of pregnancies and births among young women.

Abortion, Legal↗

PubMed2003

Do amnesty programs reduce undocumented immigration? Evidence from IRCA.

This article examines whether mass legalization programs reduce future undocumented immigration. We focus on the effects of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, which granted amnesty to nearly 2.7 million undocumented immigrants. We report that apprehensions of persons attempting to cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally declined immediately following passage of the law but returned to normal levels during the period when undocumented immigrants could file for amnesty and the years thereafter. Our findings suggest that the amnesty program did not change long-term patterns of undocumented immigration from Mexico.

Crime↗