A History Of Single-mother Families’ Welfare In The United States, 1935 -1996

The public welfare policy for the disadvantages has always been an important measure of social and moral principles. This article describes the most controversial U.S. welfare program for single parent families - "Aid to Families with Dependent Children", tracking and analyzing the conflict and controversy about the public welfare policy for single mothers families in the society. The factors involved in the U.S. single mothers families welfare policies includes the recognition of the nuclear family pattern, the appreciation for the work ethic, as well as the perception of the changing role of women in society. The history of welfare system of single-parent families reflects the U.S. federal government’s cognitive ability and guiding power of values above. This article is arranged by chronological style with time as longitude and historical events as latitude. The article is divided into four chapters in addition to the preface.The first chapter analyzes the historical background of U.S. welfare system aiming at single-parent families, tracing the prototype and practical basis of the AFDC, exploring how the ADC has been formally established, and concluding the basic features of AFDC.The second chapter focuses primarily on U.S. federal government’s efforts to expand social welfare and the expansions of both AFDC and single mothers families in the 1960s and 1970s, and interprets how both expansions could happened.The third chapter focuses on the different positions and attitudes about the welfare mess, the single-parent families and AFDC, and the details of Nixon’FAP and Reagan’s FSA in the 1970s and 1980s.The last chapter discusses specifically 1996 welfare reform and examines the context of welfare reform, the legislative process, the favorable factors for passage and the preliminary results.