A Parent's Economic Shadow: Family Structure versus Family Resources as Influences on Early School Achievement

Abstract

The experience of growing up in the United States is different for youngsters today than it was for their parents. Family organization has changed and the proportion of single mothers has increased dramatically in recent decades. In 1990, only 59% of children were living in traditional families with both biological parents (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1992b). Between 1970 and 1991, the proportion of children maintained by a single parent, usually the mother only, jumped from 11% to 22% (U.S. Department of Commerce, 1992), and it is estimated that about half of all children will spend some time in a household headed by a female parent. For African Americans, single parenting is the modal family form; in 1992 only 38% of African American children lived with two parents (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1992a). The consensus from earlier research is that children in one-parent families do about as well as those in two-parent families on standardized tests, although on more subjective measures, like teachers' marks or deportment ratings, children in one-parent families do not fare as well (Garfinkel & McLanahan, 1986; Hetherington, Camara, & Featherman, 1983). These conclusions about how family type affects standardized test scores, however, are based mainly on data procured in the 1960s and 1970s when the major reason for single parenting was divorce. The nature of single parenting is now quite different. In 1970, 73% of children living with one parent were in a home where parents were divorced or the spouse was absent, and about 7% were in a home with a never-married parent (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1989). In 1992, of all children living with the mother only, about 60% were living with divorced or separated parents and 35% were living with a never-married parent (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1992a). These changes in circumstances of single parents have several implications. One is that studies of how residing with a divorced single parent affects children, which focus on the trauma of parental separation and household moves that go along with divorce, are not necessarily relevant for many of the youngsters who live with single parents in the 1990s. Another implication is that low economic status is probably more problematic for children who live with a single parent now than was true in earlier decades because children of never-married mothers are much poorer than children of divorced or separated mothers (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1992a). For example, of White children between 6 and 11 years of age living with only their mother, twice as many are below the poverty line (64% vs. 32%) if the mother is never married rather than divorced. Of African American children, 71% are below the poverty line if the mother is never married, compared with 52% in divorced-mother families. Children of never-married mothers also have less access to human capital than do other children. Of children ages 6 to 11, about 85% of the parents in two-parent or divorced-mother families are high school graduates, compared with 60% of never-married mothers (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1992a). Zill and Rogers (1989) noted a relative lack of social capital as well. Even though never-married mothers spend more hours at home with their children than divorced mothers do, children living with divorced mothers are more likely to participate in a variety of family activities, to have an intellectually stimulating home environment, and to do better in school than children living with never-married mothers. The changing demographics of single-parent families certainly invite a re-examination of the issue of how parent configuration affects children's school performance. Also, most of the information about single parenting and children's schooling pertains to secondary school youngsters (see, e.g., Garfinkel & McLanahan, 1986; Hetherington et al., 1983; Mulkey, Crain, & Harrington, 1992). The picture may be different for younger children because first-grade children's cognitive skills develop at a rate about 10 times the rate of high schoolers (Jencks, 1985). …