Race, Family Structure, and Changing Poverty Among American Children

Eggebeen, David J.; Lichter, Daniel T.

doi:10.2307/2096257

Cited by 217 publications

(122 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Despite the small number of children living with their mothers only, this family type merits attention because of its supposed incidence under segmented assimilation theory and because it increases the likelihood of poverty for children (Eggebeen & Lichter, 1991;Wu & Martinson, 1993). Model 1 in Table 4 indicates that ethnicity sporadically made single-mother families less likely to occur.…”

Section: Single-mother Familiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Immigrants, their children, and theories of assimilation: Family structure in the United States, 1880–1970

Gratton

Gutmann

Skop

2007

The History of the Family

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This research employs United States census data from 1880 to 1970 to assess the influence of ethnicity and generation on the family structure of Mexican, Irish, Swedish, Italian, Polish, and native white children. Using evidence for three generations, it tests two theories, linear assimilation and segmented assimilation. Assimilation theory makes no special claims for ethnic effects, but segmented assimilation proposes that ethnicity influences the incorporation of immigrant-origin children into American society. We find few consistent ethnic effects on the probability of family type. Our principal finding is that migration itself, common to all groups, has similar consequences for all; these are revealed in generational changes in family structure. The historical periods of open immigration do differ from the contemporary period, which implies that immigration policy affects family structure. The results disconfirm segmented assimilation theory's emphasis on ethnicity in family structure, and confirm aspects of linear assimilation theory. They point to the salience of structural factors resulting from migration experience and policy, rather than ethnicity, in the evolution of family form among immigrant-origin persons.

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Section: Single-mother Familiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Immigrants, their children, and theories of assimilation: Family structure in the United States, 1880–1970

Gratton

Gutmann

Skop

2007

The History of the Family

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“…Data on the gender gap in poverty show that the poverty rates of racial/ethnic minority women surpass the poverty rates of both white women and minority men. Most previous studies on racial and gender inequality in poverty have focused on black-white inequality, and have indicated that gender differentials in poverty status are greater among African Americans (Eggebeen and Lichter 1991;Hoffman 1992;Starrels, Bould, and Nicholas, 1994;Northrop 1994;Rodgers 1987). The altered racial/ethnic composition of the U.S. population due to changes in the makeup of immigration flows and in racial/ethnic variations in fertility rates, necessitates the consideration of gender inequality as it exists among other racial and ethnic minorities.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Race, ethnicity, and the gender poverty gap

Elmelech¹,

Lu²

2004

Social Science Research

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We use data from the Current Population Survey (CPS 1994(CPS −2001 to document the relationship between gender-specific demographic variations and the gender-poverty gap among eight racial/ethnic groups. We find that Black and Puerto Rican women experience a double disadvantage owing to being both women and members of a minority group. As compared with whites, however, gender inequality among other minority groups is relatively small. By utilizing a standardization technique, we are able to estimate the importance of gender-specific demographic and socioeconomic composition in shaping differences in men's and women's poverty rates both within and across racial/ethnic lines. The analysis reveals that sociodemographic characteristics have a distinct effect on the poverty rate of minority women, and that the form and the magnitude of the effect vary across racial/ethnic lines. By incorporating the newly available immigration information in the CPS data, we are also able to document the effect of immigration status on gender inequality. The social and economic implications of the findings for the study of gender inequality are discussed in the last section of the article.Key words: poverty; gender inequality; race and ethnicity; feminization of poverty. 1 Since the late 1970s, the "feminization of poverty" (Pearce 1978), a term referring to a process whereby the poverty population increasingly comprises women and their children, has been receiving growing attention among social scientists (Bianchi 1999). While there is virtual unanimity that American women are more likely than men to fall into poverty, aggregate figures pertaining to the gender gap in poverty mask critical racial and ethnic variations; this is true with respect not only to the magnitude of the gap but also the social and demographic determinants that shape it. Indeed, the "feminization of poverty" thesis was criticized for its failure to recognize that minority women are disproportionately represented among the poor. In the early 1980s, Palmer (1983: 4−5) introduced the phrase "racial feminization of poverty" to reflect the fact that minority women are at greater risk of falling into poverty than either minority men or white women. Recent data on poverty rates in the United States indicate that black, Native American, and Hispanic women are disproportionately represented among the poor, and several studies have pointed to a need to study the distinct patterns and origins of women's poverty across both racial and ethnic lines (Hardy and Hazelrigg 1995;Starrels, Bould, Nicholas 1994;Waters and Eschbach 1995).A second line of critique of the feminization of poverty thesis focuses on the measurement and interpretation of gender disparity in poverty. "From the beginning what the term 'feminization' meant and to whom it referred were not always clear [and] …statistics cited to support the feminization of poverty tended to blur these distinctions" (Bianchi 1999: 309). In the essay, "The Perils of Provocative Statistics," Scanlan (1991) drew on...

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“…By the end of the 1990s, 57% of poor children lived in female-headed families (U.S. Census Bureau, 2007b). Eggebeen and Lichter (1991) showed that about one-half of the rise in child poverty during the 1980s was caused by shifts in the child population from married-couple families to "high risk" female-headed families (cf. Cancian & Reed, 2002;Lerman, 1996;Thomas & Sawhill, 2002).…”

Section: Child Poverty and Racial Inequalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, the late 1990s brought especially large employment increases among African American single mothers, apparently in response to work-based welfare reform (Moffitt, 2002). On the other hand, inequality between blacks and whites, as measured by differences in child poverty, has been exacerbated over recent decades by growing racial differences in family structure (Eggebeen & Lichter, 1991). Unlike the situation for Americanborn blacks, differences in family structure accounted for only a small part of large Hispanic-white difference in child poverty during the 1980s.…”

Section: Child Poverty and Racial Inequalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The typically positive interpretation given to widespread declines in child poverty during the 1990s, however, must be interpreted in light of America's rising overall standard of living (Eggebeen & Lichter, 1991;Rainwater & Smeeding, 2004). By definition, poverty income thresholds, if measured in constant dollars, have remained essentially unchanged since they were first introduced in the mid-1960s.…”

Section: Child Poverty and Racial Inequalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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