Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

No Way Out: Dealing with the Consequences of Changes in Family Composition

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Families in an Era of Increasing Inequality

Part of the book series: National Symposium on Family Issues ((NSFI,volume 5))

Abstract

A review of four decades of trend data from the decennial census shows that marriage rates have declined and nonmarital birth rates have increased. As a result, the share of children living in female-headed families has increased greatly. Research shows that children in female-headed families are more likely to live in poverty, have suboptimal development and have behavioral problems than children reared by their married parents. Because the trend data provide little reason to think any of the trends in family composition will change in the near future, the chapter reviews evidence on policies that might reduce the growth of female-headed families and the policies that can support single-parent families and their children. The review shows that interventions to reduce the growth of female-headed families are mostly ineffective. It follows that reforms to better support female-headed families and their children, many of which are proposed, are of vital national interest.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Acs, G., & Maag, E. (2005). Irreconcilable differences? The conflict between marriage promotion initiatives for cohabiting couples with children and marriage penalties in tax and transfer programs. In Assessing the New Federalism B-66. Washington, DC: Urban Institute. Retrieved from http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/311162_B-66.pdf

  • Albert, B. (2012). With one voice 2012: America’s adults and teens sound off about teen pregnancy. Washington, DC: The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. Retrieved from: http://thenationalcampaign.org/sites/default/files/resource-primary-download/wov_2012.pdf

  • Amato, P. R., & Keith, B. (1991). Parental divorce and the well-being of children. Psychological Bulletin, 110(1), 26–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Amato, P. R. (2005). The impact of family formation change on the cognitive, social, and emotional well-being of the next generation. The Future of Children, 15(2), 75–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aron-Dine, A., & Sherman, A. (2007). Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel’s proposed expansion of the EITC for childless workers: An important step to make work pay. Washington, DC: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

    Google Scholar 

  • Autor, D., & Wasserman, M. (2013). Wayward sons: The emerging gender gap in labor markets and education. Washington, DC: Third Way.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berlin, G. (2007). Rewarding the work of individuals: A counterintuitive approach to reducing poverty and strengthening families. The Future of Children, 17(2), 17–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blank, R., & Kovak, B. (2009). The growing problem of disconnected single mothers. In C. J. Heinrich & J. K. Scholz (Eds.), Making the work-based safety net work better (pp. 227–258). New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bumpass, L. L., Raley, R. K., & Sweet, J. A. (1995). The changing character of stepfamilies: Implications of cohabitation and nonmarital childbearing. Demography, 32(3), 425–436.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cancian, M., & Haskins, R. (2013, July). The impact of changes in family composition on income, poverty, and inequality. Paper presented at the Conference on Family Complexity, Poverty and Public Policy, University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carasso, A., Holzer, H. J., Maag, E., & Steuerle, C. E. (2008). The next stage for social policy: Encouraging work and family formation among low-income men. (Discussion Paper No. 28), Washington, DC: Urban Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carasso, A., & Steuerle, C. E. (2005). The hefty penalty on marriage facing many households with children. The Future of Children, 15(2), 157–175.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carlson, M. J., & Turner, K. J. (2010). Fathers’ involvement and fathers’ well-being over children’s first five years. Madison, WI: Institute for Research on Poverty.

    Google Scholar 

  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2008). Trends in HIV- and STD-related risk behaviors among high school students—United States, 1991–2007. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 57(30), 817–822.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chandra, A., Mosher, W. D., Copen, C., & Sionean, C. (2011). Sexual behavior, sexual attraction, and sexual identity in the United States: Data from the 2006–2008 National Survey of Family Growth (National Health Statistics Reports No. 36). Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clampet-Lundquist, S., Kling, J. R., Edin, K., & Duncan, G. J. (2011). Moving teenagers out of high-risk neighborhoods: How girls fare better than boys. American Journal of Sociology, 116(4), 1154–1189.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Congressional Budget Office (2011, October). Trends in the distribution of household income between 1979 and 2007. Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Congressional Budget Office (2012, November). Effective marginal tax rates for low- and moderate-income workers. Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeNavas-Walt, C., Proctor, B. D., & Smith, J. C. (2012). Income, poverty, and health insurance coverage in the United States: 2011. Washington, DC: U.S. Census Bureau.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dion, M. R., Avellar, S. A., & Clary, E. (2010). The Building Strong Families Project: Implementation of eight programs to strengthen unmarried parent families. Princeton, NJ: Mathematica Policy Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edelman, P., Holzer, H., & Offner, P. (2006). Reconnecting disadvantaged young men. Washington, DC: Urban Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fomby, P., & Osborne, C. (2013, July). Family instability, multipartner fertility, and behavior in middle childhood. Paper presented at the Conference on Family Complexity, Poverty and Public Policy, University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty.

    Google Scholar 

  • Forry, N. (2009). The impact of child care subsidies on low-income single parents: An examination of child care expenditures and family finances. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 30(1), 43–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frank, T. (2004). What’s the matter with Kansas? How conservatives won the heart of America. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frank, R. (2008). Richistan: A journey through the American wealth boom and the lives of the new rich. New York, NY: Three Rivers Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Furstenberg, F. F. (2007). Destinies of the disadvantaged: The politics of teenage childrearing. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton, B. E., Martin, J. A., & Ventura, S. J. (2013). Births: Preliminary data for 2012. National Vital Statistics Reports, 62(3), 1–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haskins, R. (2006). Work over welfare: The inside story of the 1996 Welfare Reform Bill. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haskins, R. (2011, June). Fighting poverty the American way. Paper presented at Anti-Poverty Programs in a Global Perspective: Lessons from Rich and Poor Countries. Berlin, Germany: Social Science Research Center.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haskins, R. (2012, June 5). Combating poverty: Understanding new challenges for families. Testimony for the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hawkins, A. J. (2013). The Forever Initiative: A feasible public policy agenda to help couples form and sustain healthy marriages and relationships. North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heinrich, C. J., & Scholz, J. K. (Eds.). (2009). Making the work-based safety net work better. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holzer, H. J. (2013). Good workers for good jobs: Improving education and workforce systems in the US. Madison, WI: Institute for Research on Poverty.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hsueh, J., Alderson, D. P., Lundquist, E., Michalopoulos, C., Gubits, D., Fein, D., & Knox, V. (2012). The supporting healthy marriage evaluation: Early impacts on low-income families. (OPRE Report 2012-11). New York, NY: MDRC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huffstutter, P. J. (2007, April 8). Abstaining from federal sex-ed funds. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://articles.latimes.com/2007/apr/08/nation/na-abstinence8

  • Hymowitz, K., Carroll, J. S., Wilcox, B. W., & Kaye, K. (2013). Knot yet: The benefits and costs of delayed marriage in America. Washington, DC: The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and Charlottesville, VA: The National Marriage Project, University of Virginia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kearney, M. S., & Levine, P. B. (2009). Subsidized contraception, fertility, and sexual behavior. Review of Economics and Statistics, 91(1), 137–151.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kemple, J. J. (2008). Career Academies: Long-term impacts on work, education, and transitions to adulthood. New York, NY: MDRC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirby, D. (2007). Emerging answers 2007: Research findings on programs to reduce teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Washington, DC: The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krugman, P. (2002, October 20). For richer. New York Times Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/20/magazine/for-richer.html

  • Lerman, R. I. (2013). Skill development in middle level occupations: The role of apprenticeship training. (Policy Paper No. 61).Bonn, Germany: IZA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loprest, P. J. (2011). Disconnected families and TANF. Washington, DC: Urban Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lundquist, E., Hsueh, J., Lowenstein, A. E., Faucetta, K., Gubits, D., Michalopoulos, C., & Knox, V. A. (2014).Family-strengthening program for low-income families: Final impacts from the Supporting Healthy Marriage evaluation (OPRE Report 2014-09A). New York, NY: MDRC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayer, S. E. (1997). What money can’t buy: Family income and children’s life chances. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McLanahan, S., & Sandefur, G. (1994). Growing up with a single parent: What hurts, what helps. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McLanahan, S., Donahue, E., & Haskins, R. (Eds.) (2005). The future of children: Marriage and child wellbeing (Vol. 15, No. 2).

    Google Scholar 

  • Mead, L. M. (1986). Beyond entitlement: The social obligations of citizenship. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mead, L. M. (2011). Expanding work programs for poor men. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy (2013). Counting it up: The public costs of teen childbearing: Key data. Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://thenationalcampaign.org/resource/counting-it-key-data-2013

  • Obama, B. (2011, December 6). Remarks by the President on the Economy in Osawatomie, Kansas. Speech presented at Osawatomie High School, Osawatomie, KS. Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/12/06/remarks-president-economy-osawatomie-kansas

  • Office of Adolescent Health (2012). Evidence-based programs. Retrieved from http://www.hhs.gov/ash/oah/oah-initiatives/teen_pregnancy/db/programs.html

  • Office of Child Support Enforcement (2000). FY1999 and FY2000 annual report—Table 4. Washington, DC: Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved from http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/css/resource/fy19992000-annual-report-table-4

  • Pardoe, R., & Bloom, D. (2014). Paycheck plus: A new antipoverty strategy for single adults. New York, NY: MDRC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pavetti, L., Schott, L., & Lower-Basch, E. (2011). Creating subsidized employment opportunities for low-income parents: The legacy of the TANF Emergency Fund. Washington, DC: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pearlstein, M. (2011). From family collapse to America’s decline: The educational, economic, and social costs of family fragmentation. New York, NY: Rowman & Littlefield Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pettit, B., & Western, B. (2004). Mass imprisonment and the life course: Race and class inequality in U.S. incarceration. American Sociological Review, 69, 151–169.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reardon-Anderson, J., Stagner, M., Macomber, J. E., & Murray, J. (2005). Systematic review of the impact of marriage and relationship programs. Washington, DC: Urban Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sawhill, I., & Karpilow, Q. (2013). Strategies for assisting low-income families. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schroeder, D., & Doughty, N. (August 2009). Texas non-custodial parent choices: Program impact analysis. Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved from http://www.utexas.edu/research/cshr/rmc1/index.php/publications/all-publications/754-texas-non-custodial.html?catid=7%3Aabout

  • Schulz, M. S., Cowan, C. P., & Cowan, P. A. (2006). Promoting healthy beginnings: A randomized controlled trial of a preventive intervention to preserve marital quality during the transition to parenthood. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74(1), 20–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Social Security Administration (2011). Compilation of the Social Security Laws, Title V, Separate Programs for Abstinence Education. Retrieved from http://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/ssact/title05/0510.htm

  • Stanley, S. M., Allen, E. S., Markman, H. J., Rhoades, G. K., & Prentice, D. L. (2010). Decreasing divorce in Army couples: Results from a randomized controlled trial using PREP for Strong Bonds. Journal of Couples and Relationship Therapy, 9(2), 149–160.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steuerle, C. E. (1999). Valuing marital commitment: Radical restructuring of our tax and transfer systems. The Responsive Community, 9(2), 35–45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tach, L., & Edin, K. (2011, February 10). A closer look at unmarried families: Children’s experiences of relationship instability and family complexity. Paper presented at the Princeton Family Taskforce Meeting, Brookings Institution, Washington, DC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, A. (2012a). Three strategies to prevent unintended pregnancy. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 31(2), 280–311.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, A. (2012b). Policy solutions for preventing unplanned pregnancy. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trenholm, C., Devaney, B., Fortson, K., Quay, L., Wheeler, J., & Clark, M. (2007). Impacts of four Title V, Section 510 abstinence education programs. Princeton, NJ: Mathematica Policy Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • U.S. Census Bureau (2012). Table 10: Related children in female householder families as a proportion of all related children, by poverty status: 1959 to 2011. Washington, DC: Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplement 2011. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/data/historical/people.htm

  • Wood, R. G., McConnell, S., Moore, Q., Clarkwest, A., & Hsueh, J. (2010). Strengthening unmarried parents’ relationships: The early impacts of Building Strong Families. Princeton, NJ: Mathematica Policy Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wood, R. G., Moore, Q., Clarkwest, A., Killewald, A., & Monahan, S. (2012). The long-term effects of Building Strong Families: A relationship skills education program for unmarried parents (OPRE Report 2012-28B). Princeton, NJ: Mathematica Policy Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • World Bank (2013). Adolescent fertility rate (births per 1,000 women ages 15–19). Retrieved from http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.ADO.TFRT

Download references

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Kimberly Howard for superb research assistance and Gregory Acs and Bill Coffin for helpful comments on an earlier draft of the chapter.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Brookings Center on Children and Families, The Brookings Institution, Washington, DC, USA

    Ron Haskins

Authors
  1. Ron Haskins
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ron Haskins .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Criminology, The Pennsylvania State Univeristy, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA

    Paul R. Amato

  2. Department of Sociology and Criminology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA

    Alan Booth

  3. Social Science Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA

    Susan M. McHale

  4. Population Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA

    Jennifer Van Hook

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Haskins, R. (2015). No Way Out: Dealing with the Consequences of Changes in Family Composition. In: Amato, P., Booth, A., McHale, S., Van Hook, J. (eds) Families in an Era of Increasing Inequality. National Symposium on Family Issues, vol 5. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08308-7_13

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation