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 Father
Absence Article #5: Welfare &
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 living 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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