From dependency to child maltreatment? Changing frames in U.S. newspaper coverage of welfare policy

Inroduction: Prior research has extensively documented dependency framing in welfare discourse during the mid-to-late twentieth century, but less is known about whether this framing persists in more recent periods. This study examines U.S. newspaper discourse on social welfare during three periods marking key welfare and child welfare policy shifts: 1994-1996 (welfare reform), 2016-2018 (child welfare reform), and 2021-2023 (post-pandemic).