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The Role of Single Motherhood in America's High Child Poverty.
- Source :
- Demography (Duke University Press); Aug2024, Vol. 61 Issue 4, p1161-1185, 25p
- Publication Year :
- 2024
-
Abstract
- 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]
- Subjects :
- POVERTY reduction
PUNISHMENT -- History
RISK assessment
SINGLE women
AFRICAN Americans
INCOME
HISPANIC Americans
PROBABILITY theory
UNEMPLOYMENT
LOGISTIC regression analysis
FAMILIES
DESCRIPTIVE statistics
WHITE people
SIMULATION methods in education
RACISM
RACE
RESEARCH bias
PUNISHMENT
MOTHERHOOD
CONFIDENCE intervals
POVERTY
PSYCHOSOCIAL factors
EDUCATIONAL attainment
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00703370
- Volume :
- 61
- Issue :
- 4
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Demography (Duke University Press)
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 179435119
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1215/00703370-11466590