Supplementary file 1_From dependency to child maltreatment? Changing frames in U.S. newspaper coverage of welfare policy.docx

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).</p>Methods<p>We randomly sampled 40 ProQuest-indexed newspaper articles from each period (120 total) addressing welfare, child welfare, unemployment insurance, or education spending.

Using a mixed deductive-inductive qualitative content analysis, we examined recurring frames, their relationships, and how they were articulated across policy domains and periods. Our analysis characterizes how these frames organize meaning and share an underlying cultural logic rather than estimating their prevalence in the broader population of news coverage.</p>Results<p>Consistent with prior research, dependency framing was common in the 1990s sample.