Mother-only Families Research Articles

Emotional neglect and depressive symptoms of left-behind adolescents: The role of friendship quality and gender

BackgroundEmotional neglect is a risk factor for adolescents’ depression. In migrant families, long-term parent-child separation increases the possibility of left-behind adolescents experiencing emotional neglect, making it an important risk factor for the occurrence and development of depressive symptoms among left-behind adolescents. Moreover, there has been a dearth of work on protective factors against the harmful impacts of emotional neglect on left-behind adolescents’ depressive symptoms. To address this gap, the protective roles of friendship quality and gender differences were also examined. MethodsA total of 1802 Chinese rural adolescents completed self-report standardized scales that measured emotional neglect, friendship quality and depressive symptoms. ResultsEmotional neglect was positively associated with adolescents’ depressive symptoms, but the predictive power of emotional neglect for depressive symptoms varied with left-behind status and gender. Furthermore, friendship quality was not only negatively associated with adolescents’ depressive symptoms, but also buffered the negative impact of emotional neglect on depressive symptoms among girls from both-parent migrant families. LimitationsThis study was limited by the cross-sectional data, the methods of self-reporting, the lack of adolescents from mother-only families, and a potential nesting structure. ConclusionsThese findings provide important implications for intervention programs that are targeted toward reducing the impact of emotional neglect on left-behind adolescents.

Americans’ occupational status reflects the status of both of their parents

American workers' occupational status strongly reflects the status of their parents. Men and women who grew up in a two-earner or father-breadwinner family achieved occupations that rose 0.5 point for every one-point increase in their parents' statuses (less if their father was absent). Gender differences were small in two-earner families and mother-only families, but men's status persisted more when the father was the sole breadwinner. Intergenerational persistence did not change in the time the data cover (1994-2016). Absolute mobility declined for recent birth cohorts; barely half the men and women born in the 1980s were upwardly mobile compared with two-thirds of those born in the 1940s. The results as described hold for a socioeconomic index (SEI) that scores occupation according to the average pay and credentials of people in the occupation. Most results were the same when occupations were coded by different criteria, but SEI produced the smallest gender differences.

Influences of family structure experiences on the risk of premarital sexual initiation during adolescence in Cameroon.

The link between family structure experiences and premarital sexual initiation in sub-Saharan African settings has been investigated using primarily the socialization perspective. This article tests additional hypotheses using the perspectives of change and duration of exposure. The analyses are based on time-dependent retrospective data on family living arrangements from a sample of 1182 individuals aged 12-24 years old, drawn from the Cameroon Family and Health Survey. From the socialization perspective for both females and males: living without both biological parents does not necessarily increase the probability of premarital sexual initiation during adolescence; the timing of family structure experiences is an important factor to consider in life course transitions; and other relatives play a protective role during adolescence, especially among females living in mother-only families. Findings also provide some support for the instability and change hypothesis as well as for the duration of exposure conjecture: a change from other family structure types to a both biological parents structure between age 6 and age 12 (change perspective) and living with the biological mother only at all the time (duration of exposure perspective) are associated with lower risks of premarital sexual initiation during adolescence among females. Our results have implications for preventing risky sexual behaviours during adolescence.

Alcoholism and timing of separation in parents: findings in a midwestern birth cohort.

We examined history of alcoholism and occurrence and timing of separation in parents of a female twin cohort. Parental separation (never-together; never-married cohabitants who separated; married who separated) was predicted from maternal and paternal alcoholism in 326 African ancestry (AA) and 1,849 European/ other ancestry (EA) families. Broad (single-informant, reported in abstract) and narrow (self-report or two-informant) measures of alcoholism were compared. Parental separation was more common in families with parental alcoholism: By the time twins were 18 years of age, parents had separated in only 24% of EA families in which neither parent was alcoholic, contrasted with 58% of families in which only the father was (father-only), 61% of families in which only the mother was (mother-only), and 75% in which both parents were alcoholic (two-parent); corresponding AA percentages were 59%, 71%, 82%, and 86%, respectively. Maternal alcoholism was more common in EA nevertogether couples (mother-only: odds ratio [OR] = 5.95; two parent: OR = 3.69). In ever-together couples, alcoholism in either parent predicted elevated risk of separation, with half of EA relationships ending in separation within 12 years of twins' birth for father-only families, 9 years for mother-only families, and 4 years for both parents alcoholic; corresponding median survival times for AA couples were 9, 4, and 2 years, respectively. EA maternal alcoholism was especially strongly associated with separation in the early postnatal years (mother-only: birth-5 years, hazard ratio [HR] = 4.43; 6 years on, HR = 2.52; two-parent: HRs = 5.76, 3.68, respectively). Parental separation is a childhood environmental exposure that is more common in children of alcoholics, with timing of separation highly dependent on alcoholic parent gender.

FAMILY STRUCTURE AND COLLEGE GRADUATION: IS THE STEPPARENT EFFECT MORE NEGATIVE THAN THE SINGLE PARENT EFFECT?

We use data from the National Longitudinal Education Study (NELS) to build upon previous research that considered the negative effects of living in mother-only families and stepparent families on the subsequent educational attainment of children. Our results break new ground in finding that although those who lived in a mother-only family are not less likely overall to graduate college than those who lived with two biological parents, they are significantly less likely to graduate college given four-year college attendance even when other important factors are controlled. In addition, we find that those who lived in a stepparent family are less likely overall to graduate college than those who lived with two biological parents when other important factors are controlled. This difference for those who lived in a stepparent family is due to lower chances of four-year college attendance given high school graduation and of college graduation given four-year college attendance.

The Implications of Grandparent Coresidence for Economic Hardship among Children in Mother-Only Families.

Estimates suggest that more than 6 million children live with at least one grandparent. Despite evidence establishing the growing prevalence of this arrangement, limited research has focused on estimating the implications of co-residence for the economic well-being of grandchildren. Using data from the 2001 panel of the Survey of Income and Program Participation, this paper examines levels of financial hardship among a particularly vulnerable group of children - those living in mother-only families. Findings suggest that children living in mother-only families that include a grandparent are substantially less likely to be living below or near the poverty level, compared to children living in mother-only families without a grandparent present. The financial security of children in these three-generation households is enhanced through significant economic contributions of the grandparents, and from household receipt of a wide range of financial resources, including means-tested cash transfers and other income such as Social Security.

Childhood Behavior and Adult Criminality: Cluster Analysis in a Prospective Study of African Americans

Adult criminality has important roots in childhood. While many studies have established that multiple problem behaviors in childhood increase the likelihood of future crime and deviance, the current study extends this "established" relationship by asking three questions: (1) Do different combinations of childhood behavioral risk factors affect adult offending? (2) Do family risk factors affect adult offending above and beyond these combinations of risks?, and (3) Are there gender differences present with respect to these two questions? Gender-specific cluster analyses identified seven clusters of childhood behavioral patterns based on teacher ratings measured in first grade among an epidemiologically-defined cohort of African Americans. Multinomial logistic regression analyses were utilized to examine the relationship of cluster membership, family risks, and criminal arrests through age 32 for serious violent and property crimes. While some gender differences emerged, both males and females in the multiple problem cluster were more likely to have later arrests for serious crime. Females who were frequently punished as first graders were most likely to have later arrests for serious crimes, while males who were from mother-only families were at higher risk of having serious criminal arrests compared to those from mother-father families. Implications for prevention and intervention strategies are also discussed.

SCHIP expansion and parental coverage: An evaluation of Wisconsin's BadgerCare

The Wisconsin BadgerCare program, which became operational in July 1999, expanded public health insurance eligibility to both parents and children in families with incomes below 185% of the U.S. poverty line (200% for those already enrolled). This eligibility expansion was part of a federal initiative known as the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Wisconsin was one of only four states that initially expanded coverage to parents of eligible children. In this paper, we attempt to answer the following question: To what extent does a public program with the characteristics of Wisconsin's BadgerCare program reduce the proportion of the low-income adult population without health care coverage? Using a coordinated set of administrative databases, we track three cohorts of mother-only families: those who were receiving cash assistance under the Wisconsin AFDC and TANF programs in September 1995, 1997, and 1999, and who subsequently left welfare. We follow these 19,201 “welfare leaver” families on a quarterly basis for up to 25 quarters, from 2 years before they left welfare through the end of 2001, making it possible to use the labor market information and welfare history of the women in analyzing outcomes. We apply multiple methods to address the policy evaluation question, including probit, random effects, and two difference-in-difference strategies, and compare the results across methods. All of our estimates indicate that BadgerCare substantially increased public health care coverage for mother-only families leaving welfare. Our best estimate is that BadgerCare increased the public health care coverage of all adult leavers by about 17–25% points.

Extending Health Care Coverage to the Low-Income Population: The Influence of the Wisconsin Badgercare Program on Labor Market Outcomes

The Wisconsin BadgerCare program, which became operational in July 1999, expanded public health insurance eligibility to families with incomes below 185 percent of the U.S poverty line (200 percent for those already enrolled). This eligibility expansion was part of a federal initiative known as the State Children's Health Initiative Program (SCHIP). In this paper, we investigate the effect of Wisconsin's BadgerCare on the labor market outcomes of low-income single mothers. Using a coordinated set of administrative databases, we track three cohorts of mother-only families: those who were receiving cash assistance under the Wisconsin AFDC and TANF programs in September 1995, 1997, and 1999, and who subsequently left welfare. We follow the 19,201 single mothers heading these welfare leaver families on a quarterly basis from two years before they left welfare through the end of 2001. We use information on the labor market and welfare history of these women and their household characteristics and macroeconomic environment to analyze the effect of the availability of additional public health coverage on their employment and earnings. We apply multiple methods to investigate these outcomes, comparing across- and within-individual differences. The core finding is that labor earnings increased with the introduction of BadgerCare. This increase was small in absolute dollar value but sizeable in percentage terms.

How Did the Social Policy Changes of the 1990s Affect Material Hardship among Single Mothers? Evidence from the CPS Food Security Supplement

Although many opponents of welfare reform predicted that it would increase hardship, the official poverty rate for female headed families with children fell from 42 percent in 1996 to 34 percent in 2002. Skeptics have nonetheless argued that declines in official poverty rates may have been accompanied by increases in material hardship, since single mothers who entered the labor market often incurred new expenses and lost valuable noncash benefits. We investigate this possibility using the Current Population Survey's Food Security Supplement. Food-related problems declined among mother-only families between 1995 and 2000 and rose between 2000 and 2002, but the decline was far larger than the subsequent increase. These changes parallel changes in the official poverty rate during the same years. In contrast to previous economic expansions, the proportional decline in poverty during the late-1990s was at least as large among mother-only families as among two-parent families. We argue that this change was linked to welfare reform and other social policy changes that encouraged single mothers to enter the labor force. As a result, single mothers' material standard of living probably improved more during this economic expansion than during earlier ones.

The Living Arrangements of African American and Immigrant Children, 1880-2000

Using data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS), the author compares the living arrangements of African American and immigrant children from 1880 through 2000. African American children were less likely than foreign-born white children to live with two parents throughout this protracted period, with the gap widening sharply after 1960. African Americans and the small group of nonwhite immigrants exhibited roughly similar family patterns before 1960. That difference also increased during later decades as both foreign-born Asian and foreign-born black children were more likely than African Americans to reside with two parents. Immigrant children from virtually all nationalities were more likely than black children to live with two parents. Over time, widowhood declined as a cause of paternal absence for all groups, and the influence of marital disruption increased. Nonmarital motherhood increased markedly as a cause of mother-only families for blacks after 1960.

Les enfants des mères seules : précarité économique et politiques sociales

"In the absence of government assistance, most mother-only families would be poor and economically insecure.... Government can reduce economic insecurity, but doing so will increase dependence on government....This creates a major dilemma for policy makers: whether to give priority to reducing economic insecurity or whether to give priority to reducing dependence and prevalence. In this paper we address key questions relevant to the dilemma: the extent of insecurity, dependence, and prevalence; the role of government in producing and maintaining all three; and the experience of single mothers and their children in the United States as compared to those in other advanced industrial nations.... Evidence from both international comparisons and American experience during the past 20 years indicates that a further reduction in welfare benefits will increase poverty and insecurity. Furthermore, the beneficial effects on dependence and prevalence are not likely to be great." (SUMMARY IN ENG AND SPA)

Facilitating Adolescents' Constructive Use of Time in One-Parent Families

Many adolescents in 1-parent families experience positive conditions for development. In this article, we use experience sampling data from 101 mother-only families to evaluate factors associated with adolescents' devotion of time to constructive activities, such as reading, sports, creative, and religious activities. Findings show that a set of family management variables, including firm discipline, family routines, and mothers' amount of time spent in child-supportive activities, were associated with adolescents' constructive use of free time. Adolescents' constructive time was also correlated with mothers' time spent reading, participating in religious activities, and watching TV; and with mothers' well-being and cooperation with the nonresident father. These results demonstrate how many families adjust positively to the situation of single parenthood.

The Influence of Remarriage on the Racial Difference in Mother-Only Families in 1910

The Influence of Remarriage on the Racial Difference in Mother-Only Families in 1910

Single Mothers in Russia: Household Strategies for Coping with Poverty

During the 1990s, the proportion of female-headed households as well as their poverty risk has increased rapidly. Seven rounds of the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS) are used to investigate the role that household living arrangements play in single-mother family income dynamics and the major factors that affect the income status of mother-only families in Russia. Enhanced earning power of the single parent as well as a higher level of child benefits increases the likelihood that the single parent family lives separately from other relatives. Increasingly single mothers are choosing to co-reside with other relatives or adults in times of economic stress.

The Effects of Change in Family Structure and Income on Dropping Out of Middle and High School

Using a longitudinal sample of eighth graders who lived with both biological parents in 1988, we estimate the increased risk of dropping out among students whose two-parent families experienced disruption over the subsequent 4 years. We differentiate the impact on school dropout of initial family income before family disruption from income change after the marriage ends. This approach helps to disentangle two interpretations of the relation between income and family structure. Our results suggest that both measures of income are significant contributors of the risk of dropping out for children whose families became mother-only families. When income loss is taken into account, along with initial income and other family, demographic, and prior school achievement factors, there is no evidence of increased risk of dropout among children who began to live with a single mother during the 1988-1992 period.

Historical Changes and Life Course Variation in the Determinants of Premarital Childbearing

Longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics for a sample of 2794 women observed between 1968 and 1993 are used to determine whether the impact of established sociodemographic determinants of the risk of a premarital birth has changed over time or varies by age in the US. Event history analyses show that the risk of a premarital birth is greater for Black women and Latinas than for White women and non-Latinas. Moreover the incidence of premarital birth declines with the socioeconomic status of the family of origin is greater for women growing up in a mother-only family increases with neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage and is higher in metropolitan areas and in areas outside the South. Overtime the racial difference in the risk of premarital birth has reduced patterns that cannot be associated to changing racial differentials in family background and characteristics or geographic location. By contrast the difference in premarital childbearing risks between Latinas and non-Latinas has widened. The inverse effect of childhood family income on the risk of women of premarital births weakens significantly as women age.

Single Mothers by Choice

Single Mothers by Choice* This study used in depth qualitative interviews with ten women who chose to become single mothers to describe multiple individual and social contextual factors that women felt made their nontraditional choice possible. A grounded theory analysis revealed that for this sample of educated, financially autonomous women, single motherhood was chosen with support from family, friends, employers, clergy, physicians, and sometimes the foreign adoption industry. These results give a new face and voice to the single mother, expanding our understanding of postmodern families. Key Words: lone mothers, mothers by choice, self-sufficient mothering, single mothers, solo mothers. Single-mother households constitute a significant part of the contemporary American family profile. In 1970, homes maintained by a mother with children under 18 made up 12% of the U.S. total. Single-mother homes rose to 19% in 1980, to 24% in 1990, and to 26% in 1995. Nonmarital births have increased in all age groups from 15 to over 35 years of age. In 1970, 10.7% of all births were to unmarried women; by 1993, this had grown to 31%. By 1994, 37.8% of all births were to unmarried women; of these, 20.6% were births to unmarried women between the ages of 30 and 44 years (U.S. Bureau of Census, 1996). This demographic change in the American family has been met with different responses. Some scholars take a pessimistic view seeing the family in decline, the father vanishing from the lives of children, the loss of traditional values, and a breakdown of the social order (Blankenthorn, 1995; Popenoe, 1993). Others hold a postmodern view suggesting families are not declining but changing, with new family configurations emerging to cope with new work and social patterns (Stacey, 1993, 1996). Some emphasize that women's choices are influenced by economic forces (Gerson, 1985) and by men's changing attitudes and commitment to family life (Gerson, 1993, 1997). Researchers do not agree on the reasons for widespread, nonmarital births. Many believe that mother-only families result from a breakdown of a stable family or death of the father. In academia, the bias that single-mother families are a misfortune rather than a choice remains (Miller, 1992). This concentration on the negative does not sufficiently incorporate an understanding of the variance in this population group. A notable exception to this approach is Burns and Scott's (1994) study describing and explaining the increase in single mothering worldwide. This was not, however, an ethnographic study that would allow us to hear from single mothers in their own voice. Though divided in interpretation of the trends, little disagreement has been voiced that change is occurring (Stacey, 1993; Glenn, 1993; Cowan, 1993; Popenoe, 1993). Single mothers in the United States and worldwide represent an ever-growing proportion of the adult population (U.S. Bureau of Census, 1996), and the proportion of mothers who are single is growing across all socioeconomic groups (Thompson & Gongla, 1983). While there is slow but growing acceptance of single mothers in the popular press (e.g., Leslie, 1994; Ludtke, 1997) and some self-help efforts have surfaced to even encourage this family form (Mattes, 1994; Saffron, 1994), most scholarly research and public policy continues to focus on negative aspects of single mothering. Concern is justifiable considering the disproportionate levels of poverty found in mother-headed families, their social consequences, and their intersection with race, class, and gender inequities (Foster, Jones, & Hoffman, 1998; Garfinkel & McLanahan, 1986; McLanahan & Booth, 1989; McLanahan & Sandefur, 1994; Polokow, 1993). Taking a lifecourse approach enriched by a feminist perspective, this study focused on a subgroup of single mothers that has not received much scholarly attention: financially independent, adult women who are single mothers by choice. …

A Note on the Antipoverty Effectiveness of Child Support among Mother-Only Families

The Current Population Survey is used to examine the antipoverty effectiveness of child support, social insurance, and welfare among motheronly families in 1995. Child support brought about 6-7 percent of pretransfer poor mother-only families over the poverty line, an effect similar to that of social insurance and welfare. A brief trend analysis shows that child support's antipoverty effectiveness has been growing. Some potential reasons why child support's effect is still so small in the face of substantial changes in child support policy are hypothesized.

Avenues and Barriers to Residential Mobility among Single Mothers

ScOTt J. SouTH State University of New York at Albany KYLE D. CROWDER Western Washington University* Longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics are combined with local census data to examine single mothers' patterns and determinants of residential mobility between poor and nonpoor neighborhoods in the United States. Moving from a poor to a nonpoor neighborhood is facilitated by marrying and by obtaining employment and is impeded by age and home ownership. Even net of numerous controls, African American single mothers are substantially less likely to escape poor neighborhoods and significantly more likely to move into them than their non-Black counterparts. Neither receipt of Aid to Families with Dependent Children nor adult coresidence significantly reduces the likelihood that single mothers will move from a poor to a nonpoor neighborhood. Key Words: marriage, migration, moving, neighborhoods, single mothers. Prior research shows that, relative to two-parent families, families headed by unmarried mothers are spatially concentrated in high-poverty neighborhoods (McLanahan & Garfinkel, 1989) and that residence in these economically disadvantaged areas has adverse consequences for unwed mothers and their children (Brooks-Gunn, Duncan, Klebanov, & Sealand, 1993; Crane,1991; Duncan, 1994; Elliott et al., 1996; Hogan & Kitagawa, 1985; Klebanov, Brooks-Gunn, & Duncan, 1994; Massey & Shibuya, 1995; McLanahan & Booth, 1989; Wilson, 1996). Research also suggests that low-income, female-headed families who move from inner-city, underclass neighborhoods to more prosperous suburban communities improve their socioeconomic standing and social integration (Katz, Kling, & Liebman, 1997; Rosenbaum & Popkin, 1991; Rosenbaum, Popkin, Kaufman, & Rusin, 1991). Yet, we know little about the characteristics of mother-only families that facilitate or constrain residential mobility from poor neighborhoods to more prosperous areas or that enhance or retard the risk of moving from wealthier to poorer neighborhoods. Single mothers and their children move more frequently than two-parent families (Long, 1992; McLanahan, 1983), especially in the years immediately following a divorce (Speare & Goldscheider, 1987), but little is known about the socioeconomic characteristics of the neighborhoods that mobile, mother-only families vacate or enter. And, although patterns of residential mobility between poor and nonpoor neighborhoods have been described for the general population (Massey, Gross, & Shibuya, 1994; Nelson & Edwards, 1993; South & Crowder, 1997), motheronly families are likely to face a unique constellation of avenues and barriers to residential mobility and thus are worthy of special examination (Mulroy, 1995). We examine the patterns and determinants of residential mobility among unmarried mothers. We merge individual-level data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) with census data describing the poverty status of single mothers' neighborhoods to identify the characteristics of families and their contexts that enhance or diminish opportunities to leave economically disadvantaged neighborhoods for better environments. We also explore the influence of individual and familial factors on the likelihood that single mothers initially residing in nonpoor neighborhoods will move to poor areas. Particular attention is focused on the relative impact of marriage, human capital endowments, welfare receipt, and household structure as avenues or barriers to escaping-or averting moving to-poor neighborhoods. THEORY AND HYPOTHESES Beginning with Rossi's (1955) pioneering analysis, conventional models of residential mobility emphasize life-cycle and demographic factors as key determinants of the decision to move. Age, marital status, and the presence of children all have been shown to play important roles in mobility (Long, 1988). For single mothers, marriage is likely to be a particularly salient event. …