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Attitudes toward welfare, nonmarital childbearing, and work differ between mothers who have recently received welfare payments and mothers who have not recently received welfare. These differences may be important to public policy because attitudes may influence behavior. Researchers found mothers on welfare are less likely than other mothers to believe that marriage is essential for raising children. Except for attitudes linking welfare to nonmarital childbearing, however, the attitudinal differences were relatively modest between welfare and non-welfare recipients. Researchers used data from the 1997 National Survey of America's Families to compare attitudes regarding welfare, nonmarital childbearing, and work by analyzing respondents' socioeconomic and demographic characteristics and opinions.