Welfare
And Poverty
The
National Fatherhood Institute reports that 18 million children live in
single-parent homes.
Nearly
75% of American children living in single-parent families will experience
poverty before they turn 11. Only 20% in two-parent families will experience
poverty."
Source:
Melinda Sacks, "Fatherhood in the 90's: Kids of absent fathers more "at
risk", San Jose Mercury News
"The
feminization of poverty is linked to the feminization of custody, as well
as linked to lower earnings for women. Greater opportunity for education
and jobs through shared parenting can help break the cycle."
Source:
David Levy, Ed., The Best Parent is Both Parents
90%
of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes
Source:
U.S. D.H.H.S., Bureau of the Census
In 1992, 58 percent of AFDC children were
in families with never married mothers.
Source:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics,
Report
to Congress on Out-of-Wedlock Childbearing, Hyattsville, MD
In states where welfare benefits are high,
40 percent of pregnant adolescent girls get married before the birth of
the child, compared to 65 percent in states where welfare benefits are
low.
Source:
Shelly Lundberg and Robert D. Plotnick, "Effects of State Welfare, Abortion
and Family Planning Policies on Premarital Childbearing Among White Adolescents,"
Family
Planning Perspectives 22 (Nov/Dec 1990): 246-251.
Fatherless children are five times more
likely to live in poverty, compared to children living with both parents.
Source:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Center for Health
Statistics,
Survey on Child Health, Washington, DC
"...the likelihood that a family would
fall below the poverty line doubled during the first four month period
of a father's absence, increasing from 18.5 percent to 37.6 percent."
Source:
Wayne S. Duncan, "Economic Impact of Divorce on Children's Development:
Current Findings and Policy Implications," Journal of Clinical and Child
Psychology
"Only 15 percent of black children liing
with their married parents are in poverty, compared to 57 percent of those
living with their mother only."
Source:
U.S. Bureau of the Census, "Poverty in the United States 1992," Series
P-60, no. 185, US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC,
Compared to peers in two-parent homes,
black children in single-parent households are more likely to live in poverty.
Source:
Tom Luster and Harriet Pipes-McAdoo, "Factors Related to the Acheivement
and Adjustment of Young African-American Children," Child Development
65
The median household income of single adults
with children was $13,000 (+/- $500), 70 percent lower than married couples
with children ($42,700 +/- $600).
Source:
Jeanne Woodward, "Housing America's Children in 1991," US Bureau of the
Census,
Current Housing Reports H121/93-6, US Government Printing
Office, Washington, DC, 1993.
Children in cohabiting families aren't
as well off as those in married couple families. Average per capita income
in married families is almost $10,800 compared with a little more than
$7,200 in cohabiting households. That is also less than the $9,000 calculated
for families headed by a single father, but well above the $5,330 for households
headed by a single mother.
Source:
Wendy D. Manning and Daniel T. Lichter, Cohabitation and Children's
Economic Well-Being, Population Research Institute Working Paper
Series No. 94-25, University Park, PA
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, most
single mothers work full-time but earn no more than $20,000 and receive
little child support. The median per capita income for children in single-parent
families is less than one-third the median per capital income of two-parent
families.
Source:
Richard Louv, FatherLove, Pocket Books, New York
The family of black two-parent families
is almost three times the family income of white single parent families
and children in white single-parent families are 2.5 times more likely
to be living in poverty as are the children in black two-parent families.
Source:
William Galston, "Beyond the Murphy Brown Debate: Ideas for Family Policy,"
remarks given at the Family Policy Symposium sponsored by The Institute
for American Values, New York, New York
Families headed by single mothers not
only have lower incomes, they have seen no income growth since the early
1970s.
Source:U.S.
Bureau of the Cencus, Money Income 1991, U.S. Government Printing
Office, Washington, DC
Women who gave birth as teenagers were
also more likely to have total family incomes below 50 percent of the poverty
line. Over half of women who gave birth as teenagers had total family incomes
below 50 percent of the poverty line in 1992.
Source:
U.S. General Accounting Office, Families on Welfare: Teenage Mothers
Least Likely to Become Self-Sufficient, U.S. Government Printing
Office, Washington, DC
The median family income for a married
couple is three times higher than it is for a single mother family -- $40,000
a year versus $13,000 a year.
Source:
Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, "Facing the Challenges of Fragmented Families,"
The Philanthropy Roundtable 9
Households with a father present have seen
a steady rise in income from 1960 to 1990; however, households without
a father have seen a decline in income from 1980 to 1990.
Source:
Victor Fuchs and Diane M. Reklis, "America's Children: Economic Perspectives
and Policy Options
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Father-absence: Article #5