Effects of unemployment and underemployment on material hardship in single-mother families ☆ Mary Keegan Eamon ⁎, Chi-Fang Wu 1 School of Social Work, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States abstract article info Article history: Received 27 June 2010 Received in revised form 10 September 2010 Accepted 11 September 2010 Available online 18 September 2010 Keywords: Unemployment Underemployment Material hardship Single-mother families Using data from the 2004 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), this study examined relationships between employment problems and four types of material hardship among single- mother families. Although a bill-paying hardship was the most common hardship reported by the mothers (41%), 38% of the families experienced a health hardship, 33% suffered a food hardship, and 25% had a housing hardship. The multivariate results indicate that compared with families whose mothers were adequately employed, families whose mothers were unemployed/had involuntary job gaps and were underemployed had heightened risks of experiencing bill-paying, health, and housing hardships. Only unemployment/ involuntary job gaps was related to having a food hardship. A number of other factors associated with experiencing material hardship also were identified. Finally, implications for social work practice and social policy are discussed. © 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. 1. Introduction Multiple studies demonstrate that unemployment adversely affects adult physical and mental health (Paul & Moser, 2009), family interactions, and child well-being (Murphy & Athanasou, 1999; Ström, 2003) and increases the risk of experiencing poverty (U.S. Census Bureau, 2009) and material hardship (Lovell & Oh, 2005). Although including underemployment (e.g., working involuntarily part time) in the U.S. official definition of unemployment substantially increases the official unemployment rate (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2010a), few studies have examined the effects of under- employment on individuals and families. The studies that have investigated these relationships also have linked underemployment to lower levels of adult and child well-being (e.g., Dooley & Prause, 2004, 2005; Friedland & Price, 2003). Unemployment and underemployment can adversely influence all types of households; however, examining the effects of employment problems in single-mother families is particularly important. Single- mother families are more likely to be affected by the 1996 welfare reforms and related social policies that emphasize employment and require workforce participation to receive cash benefits, such as Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Although these social policies have been successful in assisting many single mothers and TANF recipients to enter employment (Ellwood, 2000; Noonan, Smith, & Corcoran, 2007; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [USDHHS], 2006), the jobs frequently are short-term, low-paying, and provide inadequate benefits (Loeb & Corcoran, 2001; Ozawa & Yoon, 2005; Wu, Cancian, & Meyer, 2008). In addition, 28.7% of female-headed families in the U.S. live in poverty (U.S. Census Bureau, 2009). These families are five times more likely to be poor than are married-couple families; and regardless of employment status, they experience a variety of material hardships (Acs, Loprest, with Roberts, 2001; Cancian & Meyer, 2004; Danziger, Corcoran, Danziger, & Heflin, 2000; Heflin, 2006). The current study provides important insights into relationships between unemployment and underemployment and material hard- ship in a sample of single-mother families. This study is important for several reasons. First, as previously discussed, although single mothers increasingly rely on workforce participation to provide for their families, short-term and low-paying jobs frequently result in material hardship. Second, a consensus among researchers appears to exist that low-income measures and material hardship are related, but are not identical concepts (USDHHS, 2004). Because the ability to provide for a family depends not only on available income, but on other resources (e.g., noncash government and private assistance, credit, assets), the family's expenses (e.g., taxes, household expenses, childcare and other employment costs) (Bauman, 1998; Beverly, 2001), and personal (e.g., mental health, budgeting ability) and community (e.g., access to grocery stores, housing costs) character- istics, income measures do not directly assess the quality of families' Children and Youth Services Review 33 (2011) 233–241 ☆ An earlier version of this paper was presented at the conference on Vulnerable Families and Children: Global Perspectives on Social Welfare with a Focus on China, Taiwan, and the United States, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, June 2010. ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: + 1 217 244 5238; fax: +1 217 244 5220. E-mail addresses: eamon@illinos.edu (M.K. Eamon), cfangwu@illinois.edu (C.-F. Wu). 1 Tel.: +1 217 244 5222. 0190-7409/$ – see front matter © 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2010.09.006 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Children and Youth Services Review journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth