DOI: 10.3886/icpsr04701.v7
title: Welfare, Children, and Families: A Three-City Study
title: Version 7

description: This data collection is the third wave of an intensive study in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio, which was initiated to assess the well-being of low-income children and families in the post-welfare reform era. The project investigates the strategies families have used to respond to reform, in terms of employment, schooling or other forms of training, residential mobility, and fertility. Central to this project is a focus on how these strategies affect children's lives, with an emphasis on their health and development as well as their need for, and use of, social services. For the first wave of the study, between March 1999 and December 1999, a random sample of approximately 2,400 households with children in low-income neighborhoods in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio were selected for interviews. Forty percent of the families interviewed were receiving cash welfare payments at the time of the interview. Each household had a child aged 0 to 4 or aged 10 to 14 at the time of the interview. The child and the child's primary female caregiver are the focus of the study. Extensive baseline information was gathered at the initial personal interview with the caregivers, tested younger children were assessed, and older children were interviewed. All interviews were conducted in-person using a computerized instrument. The third wave of data collection took place between February 2005 and January 2006, when the focal children were aged 5 to 10 or aged 15 to 20. Between May 2005 and May 2006, interviews were conducted with the teachers of the focal children.
description: Between March 1999 and December 1999 a random sample of approximately 2,400 households with children in low-income neighborhoods in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio were interviewed. Forty percent of the families interviewed were receiving cash welfare payments at the time of the interview. Each household had a child aged 0 to 4 or aged 10 to 14 at the time of the interview.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Focal Child Interview Data, Wave 3, Restricted-Use
DS2: Continuing and New Caregiver Interview Data, Wave 3, Restricted-Use
DS3: Separated Caregiver Interview Data, Wave 3, Restricted-Use
DS4: Focal Child Interview Data, Wave 3, Public Use
DS5: Continuing and New Caregiver Interview Data, Wave 3, Public Use
DS6: Separated Caregiver Interview Data, Wave 3, Public Use
DS7: Continuing and New Caregiver Interview, Wave 3, Child Age/Gender Addendum Data
DS8: Separated Caregiver Interview, Wave 3, Child Age/Gender Addendum Data
DS9: Focal Child Interview Data, Wave 2, Public Use
DS10: Continuing and New Caregiver Interview Data, Wave 2, Public Use
DS11: Separated Caregiver Interview Data, Wave 2, Public Use
DS12: Continuing and New Caregiver Geocode Data, Wave 2
DS13: Separated Caregiver Geocode Data, Wave 2
DS14: Embedded Developmental Survey Data, Wave 2
DS15: Main Interview Data, Wave 1
DS16: Main Interview Geocode Data, Wave 1
DS17: Embedded Developmental Survey Data, Wave 1
DS18: Sociometrics Wave 1 Variable Name Conversion Syntax
DS19: Sociometrics Wave 1-Embedded Variable Name Conversion Syntax
DS20: Sociometrics Wave 2, Part 1 Variable Name Conversion Syntax
DS21: Sociometrics Wave 2, Part 2 Variable Name Conversion Syntax
DS22: Sociometrics Wave 2, Part 3 Variable Name Conversion Syntax
DS23: Sociometrics Wave 2-Embedded Variable Name Conversion Syntax
DS24: Three-City Teacher Survey (TCTS)
description: Families with incomes less than 200 percent of the government poverty line living in Boston, San Antonio, and Chicago.
description: computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI); computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI); face-to-face interview; telephone interviewThe teacher interview data are restricted and available only onsite through the ICPSR Data Enclave.