U.S. has world’s highest rate of children living in single-parent households

VorZakone

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Thoughts? Is this a 'good' or 'bad' thing in your opinion?

For decades, the share of U.S. children living with a single parent has been rising, accompanied by a decline in marriage rates and a rise in births outside of marriage. A new Pew Research Center study of 130 countries and territories shows that the U.S. has the world’s highest rate of children living in single-parent households.

Almost a quarter of U.S. children under the age of 18 live with one parent and no other adults (23%), more than three times the share of children around the world who do so (7%). The study, which analyzed how people’s living arrangements differ by religion, also found that U.S. children from Christian and religiously unaffiliated families are about equally likely to live in this type of arrangement.

In comparison, 3% of children in China, 4% of children in Nigeria and 5% of children in India live in single-parent households. In neighboring Canada, the share is 15%.
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https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-ta...other-countries-to-live-with-just-one-parent/
 

thegregster

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It's a terrible thing.

It leads to poverty. It takes two people to raise a child.
 

Adisa

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It's bad. There's no other way of spinning it. Research after research has shown children who are taken care of by both parents have a better chance of making it as full fledged respectable members of society.
 

Gehrman

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It's bad. Hard on the kid and hard on the single parent.
 

ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg

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I don’t think you can call it good.

there will clearly be some one parent families that thrive, but for the majority, having 2 adults in the household will be better than one.

frankly it’s bloody hard work to bring up children, when there’s 2 of you.
 

Grinner

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Perhaps the solution might be to lock up whole families when the dad gets put in prison. Keep them all together in a family prison compound somewhere. That'd solve all kinds of problems at once.
 

sport2793

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Grinner said:
Perhaps the solution might be to lock up whole families when the dad gets put in prison. Keep them all together in a family prison compound somewhere. That'd solve all kinds of problems at once.
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:lol: I wonder who will take the bait. It's the Caf after all.
 

Charlie Foley

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Grinner said:
Perhaps the solution might be to lock up whole families when the dad gets put in prison. Keep them all together in a family prison compound somewhere. That'd solve all kinds of problems at once.
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We could call it, “the Kamala Harris back to school program”
 

VorZakone

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Vidyoyo said:
I guess the question to ask is, what socio-economic events or changes have happened since 1968?
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Some would be quick to blame welfare but this source gives another perspective.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/prospect.org/api/amp/health/consequences-single-motherhood/
If welfare is not to blame, what is? Three factors seem to be primarily responsible.

The first is the growing economic independence of women. Women who can support themselves outside marriage can be picky about when and whom they marry. They can leave bad marriages and they can afford to bear and raise children on their own. Thus single mothers will be more common in a society where women are more economically independent, all else being equal.

American women have moved steadily toward economic independence throughout this century thanks to increased hourly wages, greater control over child-bearing, and technological advances that reduce time required for housework. Since the turn of the century, each new generation of young women has entered the labor force in greater proportions and stayed at work longer. By 1970, over half of all American women were employed or looking for work; by 1990, nearly three quarters were doing so. The rise in welfare benefits during the 1950s and 1960s may have made poor women less dependent on men by providing them with an alternative source of economic support. However, welfare was only a small part of a much larger change that was enabling all women, rich and poor alike, to live more easily without a husband.

A second factor in the growth of single motherhood is the decline in men's earning power relative to women's. After World War II and up through the early 1970s, both men and women benefitted from a strong economy. While women were becoming more self-sufficient during the 1950s and 1960s, men's wages and employment opportunities were increasing as well. Consequently, while more women could afford to live alone, the economic payoff from marriage continued to rise. After 1970, however, the gender gap in earnings (women's earnings divided by men's earnings) began to narrow. In 1970, female workers earned 59 percent as much as male workers; by 1980, they earned 65 percent as much and by 1990 74 percent. (These numbers, which come from a study by Suzanne Bianchi to be published by the Russell Sage Foundation, are based on full-time workers between the ages of 25 and 34.) In just two short decades, the economic payoff from marriage had declined by 15 percentage points. Such reductions are likely to increase single motherhood.

The narrowing of the wage gap occurred among adults from all social strata, but the source of the narrowing varied. Among those with a college education, men were doing well, but women were doing even better. Between 1980 and 1990, the earnings of college-educated women grew by 17 percent, while the earnings of college-educated men grew by only 5 percent. (Again, I am referring to full-time workers, aged 25 to 34). Thus, even though the benefits of marriage were declining, women still had much to gain from pooling resources with a man.

The story was much bleaker at the other end of the educational ladder. Between 1970 and 1990, women's earnings stagnated and men's earnings slumped. Between 1980 and 1990, women with a high school degree experienced a 2 percent decline in earnings, while men with similar education experienced a 13 percent decline. This absolute loss in earnings particularly discouraged marriage by some low-skilled men who were no longer able to fulfill their breadwinner role. During the Clutch Plague, fathers who could not find work sometimes deserted their families as a way of coping with their sense of failure. Again, welfare may have played a part in making single motherhood more attractive than marriage for women with the least skills and education, but only because low-skilled men were having such a hard time and received so little help from government.

The third factor in the growth of single motherhood was a shift in social norms and values during the 1960s that reduced the stigma associated with divorce and nonmarital childbearing. In the 1950s, if a young unmarried woman found herself pregnant, the father was expected to step forward and the couple was expected to marry. By the late 1980s, the revolution in sexual mores permitted young men and women to have intimate relationships and live together outside the bonds of legal marriage.

Attitudes toward individual freedom also changed during the 1960s. The new individualism encouraged people to put personal fulfillment above family responsibility, to expect more from their intimate relationships and marriages, and to leave "bad" marriages if their expectations were not fulfilled. In the early 1960s, over half of all women surveyed agreed that "when there are children in the family, parents should stay together even if they don't get along." By the 1980s, only 20 percent held this view. Once sex and childrearing were "liberated" from marriage and women could support themselves, two of the most important incentives for marriage were gone. When the economic gains from marriage declined in the 1970s, it's not surprising that declines in marriage rates soon followed.

Today, changes in social norms continue to influence the formation of families by making new generations of young adults less trustful of the institution of marriage. Many of the young people who are now having trouble finding and keeping a mate were born during the 1960s when divorce rates were rising. Many grew up in single-parent families or stepfamilies. Given their own family history, these young people may find it easier to leave a bad relationship and to raise child alone than to make and keep a long-term commitment.

Compared to the conservative argument that welfare causes single parenthood, these changes provide a more comprehensive and compelling explanation. They explain why single motherhood is more common in the United States than in other industrialized countries: American women are more economically independent than women in most other countires. For this reason alone, single-mother families should be more numerous in the U.S. In addition, low-skilled men in the U.S. are worse off relative to women than low-skilled men in other countries. American workers were the first to experience the economic dislocations brought about by deindustrialization and economic restructuring. Throughout the 1970s, unemployment rates were higher in the U.S. than in most of Europe, and wage rates fell more sharply here than elsewhere. During the 1980s, unemployment spread to other countries but with less dire consequences for men since unemployment benefits are more generous and coverage is more extensive.
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VorZakone

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However, I'm not quite sure how to interpret the "female economic independence" argument in this. Great, their financial situation has improved. But why does that result in an increase of single-parent households?

You can still be in a better financial situation and raise your kid with a man.
 

Vidyoyo

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Interesting perspective @VorZakone. Largely it's a good thing that women have more economic independence but it sounds like the resulting consequences aren't always good for the child.

Having a child is clearly quite tough and there should perhaps be some more honest conversations about how personal independence might not trump the reality of ensuring your kid grows up to have the best start in life.

It doesn't mean we need to return to conservative values though. This could be mitigated with better financial support and allowance of childcare but I get the feeling that's a long way off yet (here in the UK but especially in the USA).
 
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Hamnat

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VorZakone said:
However, I'm not quite sure how to interpret the "female economic independence" argument in this. Great, their financial situation has improved. But why does that result in an increase of single-parent households?

You can still be in a better financial situation and raise your kid with a man.
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I think the point is they don't have to stay in bad relationships or relationships that have soured because they can now be independent and get child support or just raise the kids themselves if need be. Thats the difference from in the past perhaps when options were unavailable and you had to stay in a bad relationship "for the kids" or because there were no other options for the woman.

I have 2 cousins at different ends of this issue I would say but both effectively single raising kids. One , a male, he has a good job working offshore he got a gf pregnant but it soured before the baby was even born. So enter a nasty custody case and child support agreement . He loves his child and takes care of her but hes a single parent. The situation is not ideal when hes offshore he needs a lot of help keeping up with his custody days. They go to his mother, my mom, his aunt, is on the list that can get her during his days etc if hes still offshore. So its messy, the child is "taken care of" but thats a lot of moving about and shifting schedules and questionable stability. On top of the parents despising each other.

Then a female cousin who I cant say anything other than poor decision maker. She became a teenage mother now has 4 kids with 2 different fathers between them. Works basic living wage or less jobs. One father has to be forced through the courts to pay anything in child support. The father of the other 3 he doesnt make all that much either honestly but at least he sort of cares. Not sure if they have a sharing agreement at this point. But, this family is destined to struggle their entire lives. I mean I bought them Christmas presents and had to loan her money practically monthly till the pandemic hit. She worked multiple jobs shes not just some welfare layabout but she made absolutely terrible choices and clearly had too many kids she couldn't afford and didn't have her life or career together to be able to support them alone. They will struggle the rest of their lives. The only hope really is that the kids grow up and make different better choices. Finish school, get stable jobs pick better mates and THEN have kids you can afford.
 

Vidic_In_Moscow

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It's a matter of time before we go full circle and a new religion or something is introduced to encourage marriage all over again.
 

4bars

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VorZakone said:
However, I'm not quite sure how to interpret the "female economic independence" argument in this. Great, their financial situation has improved. But why does that result in an increase of single-parent households?

You can still be in a better financial situation and raise your kid with a man.
Click to expand...
Because before the woman was trapped with a poor socioeconomic situation if she decided to be independent. Most of the women had no work experience and society would not accept them anyway besides hospitality or other low wages work. So if the situation inside the marriage was bad, they barely had a way out. Also they were not educated to be independent neither as it was accepted that their role was to be an abnegate housewife.

Currently, as they are walking the way to the equality (still a way to go) and having more economic independence and more acceptance as a professional individual in society, if their partner cheat on them, or mistreat them or simply they are not happy with him, they can say bye bye without needing to be worried with their livelihood instead of being trap with the dependency on its husband (that they could do as they wished subconsciously or consciously knowing that). If I remember right, in US the husband had the obligation by law to support her wife till the 50s and the woman was implied to get the household chores (but I am not sure about the last part).

Basically, before it was easy to have a household of 2 people because one was de facto the property of the other because was trapped in the society that they were living inand now both can choose their path if they feel like (or way more than before)
 

Siorac

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I'd like to see data about whether Americans, on average, get married younger and have children at a younger age than most Europeans. Because that's my impression overall and that would certainly have some implications here but I might be absolutely wrong.
 

neverdie

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VorZakone said:
Some would be quick to blame welfare but this source gives another perspective.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/prospect.org/api/amp/health/consequences-single-motherhood/
Click to expand...
Most of these factors can be reduced to economics or variables thereof. Women entered the workforce but it wasn't as if a monolithic decision was made. The entrance came about as a result of two world wars (especially the second) and the increasing productive output of the new economy. Demand for labour was exponentially higher post-War.

Also, it used to be a fact that one income was sufficient for one household (in specific class segments, anyway). The past fifty years or so has seen an erosion in the power of the average wage. Most economists will tell you that the West avoided a catastrophic collapse only as a result of women entering the workforce. Both sexes working, and often husband/wife pairs, papered over the cracks of rising costs of living. In the present day, not only are two jobs much more normative but three and four jobs is the new mode by which broader inequalities are being swept under the rug.

tl;dr - attitudes toward single parenthood, etc, did not arise out of nowhere. It was a direct result of having to make sense of women's necessity relative to labour.

I agree, it has nothing to do welfare. It's the exact inverse.
 

VorZakone

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Hamnat said:
I think the point is they don't have to stay in bad relationships or relationships that have soured because they can now be independent and get child support or just raise the kids themselves if need be. Thats the difference from in the past perhaps when options were unavailable and you had to stay in a bad relationship "for the kids" or because there were no other options for the woman.

I have 2 cousins at different ends of this issue I would say but both effectively single raising kids. One , a male, he has a good job working offshore he got a gf pregnant but it soured before the baby was even born. So enter a nasty custody case and child support agreement . He loves his child and takes care of her but hes a single parent. The situation is not ideal when hes offshore he needs a lot of help keeping up with his custody days. They go to his mother, my mom, his aunt, is on the list that can get her during his days etc if hes still offshore. So its messy, the child is "taken care of" but thats a lot of moving about and shifting schedules and questionable stability. On top of the parents despising each other.

Then a female cousin who I cant say anything other than poor decision maker. She became a teenage mother now has 4 kids with 2 different fathers between them. Works basic living wage or less jobs. One father has to be forced through the courts to pay anything in child support. The father of the other 3 he doesnt make all that much either honestly but at least he sort of cares. Not sure if they have a sharing agreement at this point. But, this family is destined to struggle their entire lives. I mean I bought them Christmas presents and had to loan her money practically monthly till the pandemic hit. She worked multiple jobs shes not just some welfare layabout but she made absolutely terrible choices and clearly had too many kids she couldn't afford and didn't have her life or career together to be able to support them alone. They will struggle the rest of their lives. The only hope really is that the kids grow up and make different better choices. Finish school, get stable jobs pick better mates and THEN have kids you can afford.
Click to expand...
I wonder if that's taken into the data. What if these women who leave a bad relationship get into a new one? Would this data exclude them? Would it be classified as a "single parent household"?

No idea honestly.
 

Smores

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VorZakone said:
I wonder if that's taken into the data. What if these women who leave a bad relationship get into a new one? Would this data exclude them? Would it be classified as a "single parent household"?

No idea honestly.
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You also have to ask if a bad parenting relationship is more toxic to a child than a single parent family? In which case the added economic independence is a good thing.

I think you have to look at stats on child development and behaviour rather than just assuming this is a bad thing.
 

Blodssvik

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Is shared custody not a thing there? It seems to be the assumption that the mother is the one raising the kids alone.
Lots of single mothers here on tinder here but nearly all say they have the kids every second week or similar arrangement.
 

redshaw

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The map adds some context rather than looking at China and Nigeria.


The western culture adds a lot plus political/social divides and peoples tolerance to differences. People get entrenched and have to dissovle any relationship rather than work at it.
 

Adisa

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berbatrick said:
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Her only crime is that she's poor.
It's so fecking infuriating. The same people saying she should be arrested are the same that would call her communist for asking the government for assistance.
 
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