THE CHANGING DEMOGRAPHIC AND SOCIOECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF SINGLE-PARENT FAMILIES

The demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of single parent fam ilies have changed dramatically during the past three decades. The inc rease in single parent families, which was particularly great during t he late 1960s and 1970s, slowed in the 1980s. Whereas the increase in divorce fueled the growth in one-parent families in the 1960s and 1970 s, delayed marriage and childbearing outside marriage contributed far more to growth in the mother-child families during the 1980s than did marital disruption. During the 1980s, father-child families increased faster than mother-child families. By 1990, almost one in five single parent families was maintained by a father, although only 3 percent of all children lived in this type of household. Single parenting on the part of unmarried mothers is much higher within the black than white community and racial differences were as large or larger at the beginn ing of the 1990s as a generation earlier. Whereas two-thirds of white children currently live with both biological parents, only one-quarter of black children do so. Single parent families remain disadvantaged relative to two-parent families in economic status, health, and housin g conditions and children living with a never-married mother are the m ost economically disadvantaged group of children in single parent fami lies. Projections are that one-half of children born in the 1980s will spend some time living in a one-parent situation. The picture of life with a single parent is being enhanced by new data collection and ana lyses of extended family living arrangements and the role of cohabitat ion. Among children born in the 1980s, it is estimated that as much as one-third of the time they will spend in a mother-child family will b e in their grandparents home or living in a household which includes t heir mother's cohabitating partner.