RURAL-URBAN DIFFERENCES IN BLACK-FAMILY STRUCTURE - AN ANALYSIS OF THE 1990 CENSUS

The nature and structure of the African American family continues to b e atopic of importance in sociology. Since the much-maligned Moynihan report of the 1960s, sociologists have linked Black family structure t o persisting disadvantage. However, the overwhelming majority of past studies have focused on the urban Black family. Accordingly, this arti cle employs data from the 1990 Public Use Microdata Samples to compare the rural African American family to its urban counterpart. Results f rom the logistic regression analysis reveal that for rural Blacks, fam ily structure is less important than community type and race relative to poverty status. These findings suggest a need for a refinement of t he underclass debate.