Youth Risk Reduction
 "First-Year Impacts of Four Title V, Section 510 Abstinence Education Programs." Rebecca A. Maynard, Christopher Trenholm, Barbara Devaney, Amy Johnson, Melissa A. Clark, John Homrighausen, and Ece Kalay, June 2005. The initial findings from a one-year followup of 2,310 students participating in an evaluation of four abstinence-only education programs show that youth who participated in the programs were more supportive of abstinence than those who were not exposed to the programs. The evidence on whether programs raised expectations to abstain is less clear. Although there has been a great deal of speculation, both pro and con, about the effectiveness of abstinence-only education, this offers the most solid empirical evidence to date.
Health Care Quality
 “Using External Quality Review Organizations to Improve the Quality of Preventive and Developmental Services for Children." Henry T. Ireys, Tara Krissik, James M. Verdier, and Melissa Faux, June 2005. Federal regulations encourage state Medicaid agencies to use external quality review organizations (EQROs) to help implement strategies for assessing the quality of services provided to Medicaid beneficiaries enrolled in managed care plans. This study provides state Medicaid programs, managed care organizations, EQROs, and other child health professionals with strategies for using EQROs to enhance the quality of preventive and developmental services for young children. Although only a few states currently are using their EQROs for this purpose, the findings indicate that additional states are likely to do so in the future if they can find help in applying contemporary research tools within a quality improvement framework.
Welfare to Work
 “Moving Clients into Self-Sufficiency: Summary of Findings from the Work First New Jersey Evaluation.” Anu Rangarajan, Joshua Haimson, Linda C. Rosenberg, Debra A. Strong, Robert G. Wood, and Allison Zippay, May 2005. In 1998, Mathematica began a five-year comprehensive evaluation of WFNJ to determine how clients were faring under the new reforms, how reform was implemented, and how communities responded to welfare reform and local challenges and opportunities. This report provides a brief summary of key findings related to the evaluation’s major components—client, child-only, unemployment insurance, program, and community studies.
“In Their Own Words: Work First New Jersey Clients Speak About Family, Work, and Welfare.” Allison Zippay and Anu Rangarajan, March 2005. Mathematica’s WFNJ client study included three rounds of in-depth, face-to-face interviews with a subset of families who had received welfare under the new reforms. This largely narrative report describes the wide range of experiences of current and former recipients and portrays their struggles as they try to leave welfare. In particular, it examines issues related to their work life, child care arrangements, welfare experiences, attitudes toward TANF and WFNJ, sources of support, attitudes toward marriage, roles of fathers in their children’s lives, and housing situations. |
