Abstract
The economic circumstances in which children grow up have garnered much scholarly attention due to their close associations with well-being over the life course. While it has been well-documented that children are increasingly growing up in households where their primary financial support comes from their mother, regardless of whether she is partnered or single, the consequences for household economic well-being are unclear. We use the 2014 Survey of Income and Program Participation to quantify how a mother’s transition into primary earner status affects the economic well-being of her household and if the effects differ based on her relationship status. On average, household income declines and more households are unable to meet their economic needs once the mother becomes the primary earner. However, these declines in income are concentrated among partnered-mother households and mothers who transition from partnered to single during the year. At the same time, although many single mothers see an increase in household income, the majority of these households are still unable to meet their economic needs. These findings suggest that the shift to a welfare system that requires employment coupled with structural changes in the labor market have created financial hardship for most families.
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Data Availability
All data used is publicly available and downloadable from the Census Bureau website (https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/sipp/data/datasets.2014.html#list-tab-OVR8G0IJZM8P0I5TJK). All STATA code is available from the authors upon request.
Notes
Authors’ calculations from the 2014 Survey of Income and Program Participation panel data
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This research was supported by grants (P2CHD042849 and T32HD007081) from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and grant (P30AG066614) from the National Institute on Aging to the Population Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin.
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See Fig. 5.
Household income change for each partnership status, split by mother’s social class and racial-ethnic identity
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McErlean, K., Glass, J.L. How Do Households Fare Economically When Mothers Become Their Primary Financial Support?. J Fam Econ Iss (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-023-09922-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10834-023-09922-y