Abstract
Background: The American family structure has changed in the past few decades due to a rise in the divorce rate and unmarried women with children. Research suggests a salary disparity between men and women, especially for those women after pregnancy. However, these studies were confined to individuals within traditional families, and there is a lack of information of income disparity and poverty status between single mothers and fathers. The current study explored the disparities in single-parent families based on the household income and the poverty status using a set of nationwide censor data. Methods: The current study used data from the 2011 and 2013 Panel Study of Income Dynamics (N = 1135). Multivariate regression models were used in the analysis. Results: The demographic characteristics of the weighted population showed that taxable income, total income, and poverty status were higher for single fathers than mothers, while non-work income was higher for single mothers than fathers. Single mothers were much more likely to be at the crisis category than single fathers. Multivariate analyses showed that gender, age, marital status, years of experience, and geographic region had effects on taxable income, and only gender, marital status, and region had effects on poverty status. Conclusions: The results suggest that vulnerable group of single mothers was acknowledged according to income and poverty status. Age, marital status, years of experience, and region would be the critical factors for predicting the income and poverty status for single parenthood.
Highlights
Single parenthood has been a major public policy issue in the United States since the 1960s [1].In 2012, approximately 21 million children or 28% of all children in the US, lived with one parent [2].Among the 11.6 million single parents living with their children in 2009, 9.9 million were single mothers and 1.7 million were single fathers [3]
For calculating poverty status for Objective 2, instead of using taxable income as described in Objective 1, poverty status was calculated as total income divided by poverty threshold, based on the definition of total income used to compute poverty status by the US Census Bureau [33]
Poverty status was higher for single fathers than single mothers even after using a better model specification for Objective 2 (p < 0.05)
Summary
Single parenthood has been a major public policy issue in the United States since the 1960s [1].In 2012, approximately 21 million children or 28% of all children in the US, lived with one parent [2].Among the 11.6 million single parents living with their children in 2009, 9.9 million were single mothers and 1.7 million were single fathers [3]. 2000 (in 2008 constant US dollars) [4] This could be crucial given that several studies have found that children from low-income families perform worse on a set of academic achievement indicators and have more behavior problems than children from higher income families [5,6,7]. Research suggests a salary disparity between men and women, especially for those women after pregnancy These studies were confined to individuals within traditional families, and there is a lack of information of income disparity and poverty status between single mothers and fathers. The current study explored the disparities in single-parent families based on the household income and the poverty status using a set of nationwide censor data.
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