Redefining Family Policy: Implications for the 21st Century

Foreword vii
Jacques Lempers

Acknowledgments, x

Introduction: The Need to Redefine Family Policy xi
Joyce M. Mercier and Steven B. Garasky

Contributors xxiii

Part 1 Perspectives on Contemporary Family Policy 1

1. Family Policy at the End of the 20th Century 3
Steven K. Wisensale

2. States' Political Cultures and Their Family Policies in the 1990s 21
Shirley L. Zimmerman

3. Family Policy in Japan 43
Patricia Boling

4. Voices from Below: The Use of Ethnographic Research for Informing Public Policy 67
Robin L. Jarrett

Part 2 Family Policy Across the Life Cycle 85

5. The Role of Child Care in Effective Welfare Reform 87
Kristen A. Norman-Major

6. Policy Implications for the Delivery of High-Quality Infant/Toddler Child Care 111
Alisa S. Ghazvini and Ronald L. Mullis

7. The Effects of Foster Parent Preservice Training on Parenting Attitudes, Foster Parenting Attitudes, and Foster Care Knowledge 135
Sedahlia Jasper Crase, Kristi S. Lekies, Dahlia F. Stockdale, Diann C. Moorman, Angela C. Baum, Amy Moeller Yates, Renée Gillis-Arnold, and Kristin Riggins-Caspers

8. Older Americans' Access to Health Care: A Three Cohort Analysis Using Comparative Structural Equations Models 155
Joyce M. Mercier and Mack C. Shelley II

9. Identifying Older High-Risk Drivers through License Reexamination 181
Cletus R. Mercier and Scott R. Falb

Part 3 Family Policy and 1996Welfare Reform 203

10. Welfare and Out-of-Home Placement: Implications of the 1996 (PRWORA) Reform 205
Alice A. Thieman and Paula W. Dail

11. Wage Withholding: Its Effect on Monthly Child Support Payments and Its Potential for Making Child Support a Reliable Source of Income 225
Steven B. Garasky

12. Housing Policy: Its Role in the Debate on Welfare Reform 245
Christine C. Cook and Sue R. Crull

13. Some Assessment for Future Family Policy Research 261
Maurice MacDonald

Index 279