Table 2. Selected Characteristics at the Time of Random Assignment of FTP Group Members at Risk of Hitting Time Limit, Hitting Time Limit, and Exempted From Time Limit.

Characteristic	At risk	Hit 24-month TL	Hit 36-month TL	Exempted
Work and welfare history
Income in the year prior to RA ($)	7,226	5,544	7,205	6,594
Employed in the year prior to RA (%)	38.1	53.3	33.3	37.6
Earnings in the year prior to RA ($)	555	1,617	623	652
Ever received AFDC in prior year (%)	94.5	77.1	90.9	87.1
Number of months of AFDC in prior year	10.2	7.2	10.1	9.0
Demographic characteristic
Type of time limit
24-month	32.6	100.0	0.0	29.7
36-month	67.4	0.0	100.0	70.3
Gender (%)
Female	99.7	98.1	99.2	99.0
Male	0.4	2.0	0.8	1.1
Average age (years)	28	30	27	32
Unable to take part-time job because   physically or mentally disabled (%)	15.9	19.0	21.2	37.6
Welfare applicant (%)	31.1	48.6	33.3	28.7
No high school or GED diploma (%)	44.7	24.6	64.8	50.7
Ethnicity (%)
White, non-Hispanic	1.7	39.8	17.8	30.2
Black, non-Hispanic	97.1	57.2	80.0	66.9
Hispanic	0.4	1.9	0.0	1.0
Other	0.4	1.0	1.6	1.1
Family status
Marital status (%)
Never married	75.8	51.4	64.4	55.4
Separated, divorced, or widowed	24.2	48.6	35.6	44.5
Other	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Average number of children	2.6	1.8	2.5	2.3
Age of youngest child	3.3	5.0	3.7	5.6
Age of youngest child (%)
2 years and under	57.9	47.7	55.0	40.7
3–5 years	30.6	19.0	27.0	20.8
6 years and over	11.0	33.0	17.5	38.5
Sample size	289	105	132	101

Note. A total of 20 sample members whose Background Information Forms were missing are not included in the table. Invalid or missing values are not included in individual variable distributions. Rounding may cause slight discrepancies in the calculation of sums and differences. FTP = Family Transition Program; TL = time limit; RA = random assignment; AFDC = Aid to Families with Dependent Children.