Page 403 - Sociology and You

Chapter 11 The Family
abandoned by their husbands and/or the fathers of their children make up a large part of poor single-parent households. Finally, poor women marry (or re- marry) at a very low rate.
Though significantly fewer, there is an increasing number of well-educated, professional women who head single-parent households. With the stigma of unwed motherhood declining, more affluent unmarried women are choosing to have children and to care for them alone. These women have the economic resources to support an independent family. Finally, well-educated women are adopting higher standards for selecting husbands (Seligmann, 1999).
What are the effects of single-parent families on children?
Approximately 30 percent of America’s children (defined as people under the age of eighteen) live in households with one parent. African American and Latino children are more likely than white children to live with only their mothers because of high divorce and out-of-wedlock birth rates, and lower rates of marriage and remarriage (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1998a). Figure 11.8 shows how the number of never-married and single parents increased among African Americans and Latinos from 1970 to 1998. In general, the chances are increasing that American children will live at least part of their youth in a fatherless home.
Adolescents (persons from the ages of twelve to seventeen) who live with one parent or with a stepparent have much higher rates of deviant be- havior, including delinquency, drug and alcohol abuse, and teenage preg- nancy, than adolescents living with both natural parents (Dornbush et al., 1985; Popenoe, 1999). A national sample of twelve- to seventeen-year-olds indicates that arrests, school discipline, truancy, running away, and smoking occur more often in single-parent and stepparent families, regardless of in- come, race, or ethnic background.
These figures do not point to a lack of concern in single parents as much as they show the built-in problems of single parenting. Single working par- ents must struggle to provide their children with the time, attention, and guidance that two parents can give. Because the single mother typically makes little money, she has added financial problems. Finding good child care and adequate housing in a suitable neighborhood is often very difficult.
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adolescents
youths from the ages of twelve to seventeen
Visit soc.glencoe.com and click on Textbook Updates–Chapter 11 for an update of the data.
Figure 11.8 Percentage of Single-Parent Families: 1970–1998. This graph compares the percentage of African American, Latino, and white families that have never married or have one parent. What generalization can you make from this data?
*Note: Latino data not available for 1970.
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1998.
70%
62% 61% 1998 60% 1990
52%
1980 1970
50%
40%
36% 36%
33%
30% 26% 27%
23%
10%
20%
10% 0
17%
African American Latino*
White
Percentage of single-family homes