Following the ongoing increase in nonmarital fertility, policy makers have looked for ways to limit the disadvantages faced by children of unmarried mothers. Recent initiatives included marriage promotion and welfare-to-work programs. Yet policy might also consider the promotion of three generational households. We know little about whether…

This study examined how the developmental processes of autonomy and relatedness are related to changes in the residential status of 181 first-time, adolescent, urban, low-income, African American mothers over the first 24 months postpartum. Although adolescent mothers were eager to live independently, few made a clear transition out of the…

Considerable research has been done on the relationship between Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) benefits and family structure. Evidence based on cross-state variation in welfare benefits and family structure indicates some nonzero effect of those benefits on marriage and fertility. It shows that time-series trends in family…

Examined effects of household structure on labor force status of female heads of families with minor children using the March 1985 Current Population Survey. Results suggest that models of labor force behavior are misspecified if female heads of families are not analyzed separately by race and marital status. (Author/ABL)

In a family with a physically absent father, a high degree of psychological father presence relates to wife dysfunction and family dysfunction. The wife's instrumental personal qualities may be even more important in closing-out the father role and reorganizing her family. (Author)

This study analyzed the impact of family structure (two-parent families, single-parent female-headed families, or female-headed subfamilies) on health and on medical care utilization by 6,932 children. The stresses of single motherhood led to poorer reported health for young children, regardless of income adequacy, minority group status, or other…

Using 1980 Census data, this study examined household composition and labor force participation for single mother households in urban and rural areas. The study used Census data on a representative random sample of 5,712 female headed family households. Variables studied were rural-urban status, household composition, labor force participation,…

In recent decades the proportion of women with children who head their own households has increased dramatically. The following factors have contributed to this: (1) decrease in fertility; (2) increase in divorce; (3) increased propensity for women with children to establish independent households; (4) increase in remarriage; and (5) increase in…

Investigates the following questions: (1) women's risk of poverty relative to men's; (2) the sources of sex differences in poverty; and (3) the correlation between changes in the sex/poverty ratio and changes in family structure. Confirms the feminization of poverty over time and suggests measures to reduce poverty for women and their children.…