The report looks at how welfare reform has affected the lives of children and examines whether the welfare-to-work imperative alters maternal practices, homes, or child care settings in ways that advance children's well-being.

The findings include:

- young children are moving into low-quality child care settings as their mothers move from welfare to work (most participating children were placed in home-based care rather than centers);

- child care subsidies reach unequal fractions of poor families and encourage the use of unlicensed care;

- maternal depression was higher than the national average, which affects a child's early development.