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Many claim a high prevalence of single motherhood plays a significant role in America's high child poverty. Using the Luxembourg Income Study, we compare the "prevalences and penalties" for child poverty across 30 rich democracies and within the United States over time (1979–2019). Several descriptive patterns contradict the importance of single motherhood. The U.S. prevalence of single motherhood is cross-nationally moderate and typical and is historically stable. Also, child poverty and the prevalence of single motherhood have trended in opposite directions in recent decades in the United States. More important than the prevalence of single motherhood, the United States stands out for having the highest penalty across 30 rich democracies. Counterfactual simulations demonstrate that reducing single motherhood would not substantially reduce child poverty. Even if there was zero single motherhood, (1) the United States would not change from having the fourth-highest child poverty rate, (2) the 41-year trend in child poverty would be very similar, and (3) the extreme racial inequalities in child poverty would not decline. Rather than the prevalence of single motherhood, the high penalty for single motherhood and extremely high Black and Latino child poverty rates, which exist regardless of single motherhood, are far more important to America's high child poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well established that living in a high‐poverty area often leads to lower levels of well‐being for residents. While these deleterious effects of place‐based poverty are well‐documented, the conceptual mechanisms linking poverty of place to negative outcomes remain debated, and the our understanding of the spatial patterning of poverty remains underdeveloped. In this paper, we problematize simple conceptualizations of the negative impacts of poverty exposure by illustrating the dynamic patterns poverty displays across cities on a daily basis. The vast majority of prior research on poverty of place has relied upon data anchored to place of residence. Thus, poverty rates broadly reflect poverty as it exists at night. This bias toward nighttime statistics leaves us with an incomplete understanding of spatial inequalities because daytime poverty rates can differ markedly from nighttime poverty rates due to work‐related commuting patterns. Here, we use novel data from the Census Transportation Planning Products to fully illustrate diurnal patterns in poverty at the census tract level in metropolitan America. Through a combination of descriptive, spatial, and statistical analyses, we show that the majority of census tracts experience changes in poverty throughout the day. Through a series of regression models, we also show that diurnal patterns in poverty are unevenly distributed along the lines of suburbanization, race, economic status, age composition, and industrial structure. Overall, our findings provide analytic insights into properly documenting poverty across space, while further problematizing lingering culture of poverty frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To assess whether an indicator of structural racism—the legacy of slavery—impacts racial inequality in poverty among individuals within the same family structure. Background: Family structure is a dominant explanation for racial inequality in poverty. This overemphasis on an "individual‐level" variable results in relatively less attention to the role of structural factors. Yet, structural factors, like the legacy of slavery, may be key to understanding how race and family structure intersect in the context of poverty. Method: The authors use data from the Luxembourg Income Study, the American Community Survey, and the Historical 1860 Census. Multilevel models link individual‐ and state‐level data and separate models focus on counties. The authors assess whether a proxy of the legacy of slavery (i.e., the historical concentration of enslaved people in 1860) relates to Black–White inequality in poverty among single mother households and among married with children households in the US South. Results: There is an impact of the legacy of slavery on Black–White inequality in poverty even within‐family type, but the legacy of slavery appears to be more consequential for married with children households than single mother households. Among married parent households, the racial gap in poverty is more pronounced where the legacy of slavery is stronger. Conclusion: Results suggest the link between family structure and racial inequality in poverty is overstated and more indirect, operating—at least partially—through structural racism. Implications: This study challenges the perception of marriage as an anti‐poverty mechanism. It also underscores the limitations of viewing family structure from an individual‐level perspective when explaining racial inequality. Local manifestations of structural racism are part of how family structure matters for inequality in poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]