Economic resources lag among children whose parents are cohabiting

Family Planning Perspectives, May/Jun 1997 by Edwards, S

An estimated 2.2 million U. S. children live in families headed by cohabiting couples. These children are economically better off than children with single mothers, but their economic resources lag far behind those of children with married parents. When the income of the parent's cohabiting partner is included in the total household income, the estimated proportion of these children who are poor is reduced by more than one-quarter, and the proportion with a family income that is at least twice the official poverty level increases by about one-half.l

Using information from the 5% Public Use Microdata Sample of the 1990 decennial census, the first of its kind to include "unmarried partner" as a relationship category, researchers estimated the number and proportion of children living in families headed by single parents, married couples and cohabiting couples. (For families headed by an unmarried couple, it was not possible to determine whether only one or both adults were the child's biological parents.) The analysts also estimated the cohabitation and economic status of five racial and ethnic groups: non-Hispanic whites, blacks, Asians, Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans.

To measure children's economic wellbeing, the investigators examined data on a variety of measures of income and poverty status. In addition, since official estimates of children's poverty status do not include the financial contribution of an unmarried parent's cohabiting partner, the researchers adjusted the estimates to reflect the income of both adults and thereby present a more accurate picture of children's economic circumstances.

Children's Families

Among all children in the United States, an estimated 4% (2.2 million) live with cohabiting couples, 74% with married couples, 20% with single mothers and 3% with single fathers. Children in cohabiting-couple families represent 13% of those living in households headed by an unmarried parent, but only 5% of those living with couples.

Children's living arrangements differ notably by race and ethnicity. For example, 8% of Puerto Rican children live with cohabiting couples, compared with 5% of Mexican Americans and blacks, 3% of whites and 1% of Asians. Among children living with unmarried parents, the proportion in families headed by cohabiting couples ranges from 18% among Mexican Americans to 9% among blacks and Asians. Of those in two-parent families, the proportion who live with unmarried couples is considerably higher than average among Puerto Ricans (15%) and blacks (12%).

Some 78% of children in cohabitingcouple families have an employed father, essentially the same proportion as among those with single fathers (76%), but considerably lower than that among children with married parents (92%). On average, cohabiting fathers' income is roughly half that of married fathers ($17,889 vs. $34,533) but only slightly below that of single fathers ($21,392).

Regardless of family type, similar proportions of children live with an employed mother (56-61%). Single mothers have the highest mean and median income ($12,036 and $8,352, respectively). Cohabiting and married mothers have similar mean incomes ($10,732 and $10,180, respectively), but cohabiting mothers have a higher median income ($7,982 vs. $6,000).

Reliance on public assistance is low among married couples (2-3%) and single fathers (7%), but is considerable among cohabiting and single mothers (24% and 30%, respectively). For nearly 60% of single mothers who receive public assistance, but only 13% of cohabiting couples, this is the exclusive source of family income.

The data also reveal that on average, cohabiting parents have had less education than married parents, are more likely than single parents never to have been married and are younger than single or married parents.

Among the children, too, background characteristics differ by family type. For example, while 69% of all children are white, the proportion is 78% in marriedcouple families and 45-58% in other family types; 15% of all children are black, compared with 37% of those in single-mother families, 21-22% of those living with a cohabiting couple or single father and 7% of those with married parents. Children in cohabiting-couple families are more likely than others to be younger than six (34% vs. 25-29%); families headed by a single father include fewer children, on average, than all other family categories (2.1 vs. 2.4).

Economic Well-Being

The mean household income per adult equivalent (a measure that defines each child as 0.4 of an adult) is much higher among children living in married-couple and single-father families ($10,794 and $9,000, respectively) than among those in families headed by cohabiting couples ($7,227) or single mothers ($5,330). The pattern holds among all racial and ethnic groups, but the difference is most striking among black and Puerto Rican children: Those living with married couples have about twice the income of those living with single mothers. Among children in families headed by couples, Mexican Americans have the lowest household income per adult equivalent, whether the parents are married ($9,090) or cohabiting ($7,327). The increase in income between single-mother and cohabiting-couple families is greatest among Puerto Ricans (51%) and smallest among whites (16%).