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UK Undergraduate Research Program (www.uky.edu/eureka/ukiirp) is intended to offer students, particularly in their first and second years, the opportunity to begin to en-gage in research and scholarship with a faculty mentor. Students in this program may enroll in a special research methods course designed to provide them with practical research and scholarship knowledge, such as how and where to seek funding, how grants are administered, using library and Internet resources effectively for research, and writing research and scholarly abstracts and reports. The following abstracts were the final papers submitted by UKURP students who took this methods course in the Spring of 2005 and reported on their on-going research.

This study by Dr. Badagliacco examines the use of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) among people who reside in Appalachian Kentucky. SSI is a program for people who are poor and are aged 65 or older, blind, or disabled. Children as well as adults may be eligible for SSI.

In order to receive SSI, people must meet many qualifications. SSI is based upon how much income and resources are within a household, such as wages and the amount of money in a bank account. However, some income and resources are not counted toward SSI eligibility, such as food stamps and the house that a person lives in. The maximum amount that a person can have in income and resources is $2000 per month. A couple can have no more than $3000 per month in income and resources to be eligible to receive SSI. While on SSI, a person may also receive Medicaid or food stamps, depending on the state in which he or she resides.

SSI is prevalent throughout the country. When the welfare program was reformed in 1996, many people were no longer eligible to receive welfare. When this happened, people had to find another way to survive. SSI is one of the

ways that people in Appalachian Kentucky and other regions of the country found to replace welfare.

The number of people who receive SSI throughout the country has steadily increased since the 1970s. In 1974, there were 70,900 children who received SSI. In 1974, children made up 1.8% of all people who received SSI. This is markedly different from today's statistics. In June 2003, 6,877,549 children under age 18 received SSI, which is 13.7% of all people receiving SSI. Children need to depend on SSI more than they did 30 years ago.

Through secondary data analysis, such as looking at census data and social science databases, I helped Dr. Badagliacco find more information on SSI. In her research, data is examined on a county level to see how prevalent the use of SSI is among people who are below the poverty line. The percentage of households receiving SSI ranges from 11 % in some counties to 27% in more impoverished counties in Kentucky.

One conclusion of this study is that the use of SSI appears to become a safety net for those who are not able to take care of themselves. Children help their families to survive by receiving SSI. In some families, children receive SSI because of a learning disability (often termed a "mental disability"). It is difficult to know if they are actually learning disabled or if the family has had to resort to using SSI for survival.

People who are on SSI and other welfare programs need some help in order to survive. Many families are forced to use their children. Dr. Badagliacco is studying all of this information to shed light on how widespread the use of SSI among children is. She wants to help children and their families make ends meet without forcing children to be labeled as having a "mental disability" if they do not. There are many problems with the SSI program, but this program is helping people.

Throughout the course of this year, I have learned how difficult research can be. I did not know what SSI was at the beginning of the year, nor did I know how widespread it is. I learned that the government or the people need to do something to help those people who are not able to help themselves. The secondary data analysis was difficult to do. There were many SSI articles that I found that had nothing to do with Dr. Badagliacco's research. I had to learn to look at an abstract of an article and know whether or not it pertained to her study. I learned many other things from Dr. Badagliacco that I will be sure to carry with me throughout the rest of my career. This summer, I will be accompanying her to the National Meeting of the American Sociology Association in Philadel-phia to present our results.