01509pab a2200133 454500008004000000100002800040245006200068260000900130300001500139362000800154520118100162650001201343773002001355180718b2003   xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d  aParisi, Domenico et al.  aTANF participation rates: do community conditions matter?  c2003  ap.491-512.  aDec  aA general criticism of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act is that it is primarily the result of an urban political agenda, and it may hurt rather than help the rural poor. Under the new welfare system, the rural poor that are most likely to be affected are those who live in socially, economically, and spatially disadvantaged communities. More residents in these communities are likely to need TANF, clients in these communities are least likely to leave TANF by finding employment, and community organizations are likely to have more limited resources to help TANF recipients. The objective of this study is to examine the extent to which variations in community conditions account for differences in TANF participation rates. Using 1997 TANF data from the Mississippi Department of Human Services, we estimated OLS regression models of local TANF participation rates across 100 communities in nonmetro countries. The results indicate that TANF participation rates tend to be higher in communities with high concentrations of African Americans, less faith-based activeness, more employment in retail trade, spatial concentration of the poor, and located in the Delta. - Reproduced.  aPoverty  aRural Sociology