Children's Living Arrangements in Unmarried-Mother Families

Abstract

Children in the United States are more likely than ever before to spend part of their lives in single-mother families. However, researchers usually ignore the complexity of household living arrangements, focusing solely on the marital status of mothers. Drawing on 1990 census data, we show that over two fifths of children in single-mother families live in households with other adults—relatives, nonfamily members, or mothers' cohabiting partners. We demonstrate the importance of employing this measure of household living arrangements by examining the race-ethnic gap in child poverty. The actual extent of race-ethnic gap in child poverty is masked when children's household living arrangements are ignored. We expect that answers to other research questions related to family structure will also depend on detailed knowledge about children's household living arrangements.