Attention

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent our advertisers

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

The unbelievable rise of single motherhood in America over the last 50 years

Few institutions in America have evolved over the last 50 years quite like motherhood. More women are having their children later in life. Or they're doing so in less traditional ways: before marriage, without marriage, or with unmarried partners. Single motherhood has grown so common in America that demographers now believe half of all children will live with a single mom at some point before the age of 18.

The implications of this seismic shift in family structure are broad and deeply debated. Research suggests that children with two parents fare better in many ways — in school, in their own relationships — than children with only one at home. And those implications are unevenly distributed in society: A black child today is much more likely to be born to a single mom than a white child, or the child of a mom with a college degree.

You've likely heard these trends before, but the sweep of how dramatically they've occurred over the last half-century is breathtaking. Consider this chart, from Princeton's Sara McLanahan and Harvard's Christopher Jencks. It shows that more than 70 percent of all black children today are born to an unmarried mom, a three-fold increase in that rate since the 1960s:

More

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is the major portion of the problem in the black community.

Father-less families - or families where the father is a bad example really tear down the fabric of that society.

They have to fix this themselves...the rest of us only want it fixed so we don't have to put up with their crap any more!

Anonymous said...

Or..... 10:17, many white folk are jumping on the band wagon as well because it's cheaper to have kids and raise a family by not being married. The benefits are phenomenal for a "single" mother. They figure they've been paying into the system so why not reap the benefits. The problem arises when balcks think the system was set up for them exclusively.

Anonymous said...

It's the state taking place of the father. Notice how the laws are stacked to promote it, and how CPS is claiming ultimate responsibility for children in absurd ways. This is the hallmark of a communist system taking root in our country.

Anonymous said...

If the state would actually for these DEAD BEAT DADS/PARENTS to pay up I beat it would drop! To many baby making factories out there! They make more money laying on their back then they would at a real job!

Anonymous said...

Put a limit on how many checks can go to a mother not a grand mother you may see that number go down. They have a baby every time one child ages out of child care system. We give them a check for having a child then they get food stamps, health care o wait a minute we feed them at school and they throw it in the trash.