The Family - Single-parent Households

Children in Single Parent Households and Marital Status of Parent, 1960 --2000

Earlier in this chapter we saw that 72% of households with children are two-parent households. Now we turn to the 26.7% of households with children being raised by a single parent.¹⁰ Single-parent households have been the subject of much discussion, debate, and study as their numbers have risen over the last 40 years. In 1999 the number of children being raised by a single parent reached a high of 19,899,000, or 27.75% of children under the age of 18.

The chart presents data on the number of children living with one parent only. The top line on the chart presents data as a percentage, the percentage of all children being raised in a single-parent home. The four lines running along the bottom of the chart show the number of children by the marital status of the parent in the household.¹¹

The two categories that have seen the most dramatic rise over the period shown and the two that account for the rise in single-parent households are divorced parents (rising 422%) and those who have never married (rising 3,026%). This explains, to some extent, why the subject of never-married parents dominates the debate about single-parent households, most of which are single-mother households (84%). This is not to say that divorce escaped great scrutiny during the 1990s. Many popular books like Barbara Dafoe Whitehead's The Divorce Culture: Rethinking Our Commitments to Marriage and Family, present a stark picture of the negative impact that divorce has on the children in the families being separated. The question now being raised frequently is: "Should you stay together for the kids?"

Further fueling these discussions have been the sad results of several studies done on the outcomes of children raised in single-parent families. On average, the economic and social well-being of children being raised by a single parent was shown to be lower than that of children being raised in two-parent households. To many, these findings would seem self-evident. It is simply harder for one person to do the same work that two people working together are able to do.

The poverty rate for children living in single-parent homes is five times greater than for children living in two-parent homes. This fact has focused the political debate surrounding welfare reform squarely on the subject of marriage. In 1996, after many false starts, the Personal Responsibility Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) was signed into law. Under this law the focus of welfare shifted from cash assistance for women and their children to an emphasis on self-sufficiency through work and enhanced financial support and involvement by fathers. One clearly stated intention of this legislation is to reduce out-of-wedlock births and encourage the formation of two-parent families.

Some argue that the solution to poor single-mother households is to go after fathers and make them pay. Others say that preventing out-of-wedlock births in the first place, especially those born to teenaged mothers, is a far better course of action particularly since immature, unprepared, and uneducated teenagers tend to make poor parents whether or not they are married.

The number of single-parent households fell between 1999 and 2000. The number of never-married single parents fell as did the number of divorced single parents. Could this be the beginning of a new trend?

Next we will look at the rates of single-parent families by race. Are there notable differences between the races and ethnicities in this area? Yes.

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census. Unmarried-Couple Households, by Presence of Children, 1960 to Present. Online. Available: http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/ms-la/tabad-2.txt. (for chart data); Census 2000 Supplementary Survey Profile. Table 1. Online. Available: http://www.cen-sus.gov/c2ss/www/Profiles/2000/Tabular/010/01000US1.htm. (for 2000 data); Eric Nagourney. "Study Finds Families Bypassing Marriage." New York Times on the Web, 15 February 2000 http://www.unl.edu/rhames/courses/212/family_trends/familytrends.htm. (for information about Dr. Pamela Smock's research).