% of children under age 18 living with a single parent

1
of children under age 18 living with a single
parent
Year Total Blacks Whites
1960 9 22 7
1970 12 32 9
1980 20 46 15
1990 25 55 19
2000 27 53 22
2006 28 56 23
2
Single parent families

• Based on 2000 census, about 80 of single parent
  families are headed by women
• The number of father-headed single parent
  families has more than tripled since 1980.

3
Child support (2000 census)
granted award receiving full award receiving none of award Mean amount per child per year
Poor fathers 35.9 15.7 59.3 N/A
All fathers 34.8 32.2 43.4 3307
Poor mothers 42.7 25.1 38.1 2519
All mothers 53.6 39.8 30.2 3767
4
Why men dont pay

• What do the men themselves say?
• Their relationships with their children are no
  longer close. Chambers, Making Men Pay
• They believe the mothers doesnt spend the money
  on the child. Haskins, Child Support A Fathers
  View
• They believe judges are biased and set
  unreasonable awards. Greif, Single Fathers
• Notice that the record isnt much different for
  mothers ordered to pay child support.

5
Single Parent Families Typical dynamics

• Role overload and its effects on children and
  parents
• Lack of the balancing effect that may come from
  the second parent
• Relationship with noncustodial parent

6
Joint Custody

• Joint legal custody vs. joint physical custody
• Limiting factors on joint physical custody
• Jobs and household location
• Relationship of divorced partners
• Age of children

7
Stepfamilies

• How many class members have lived in a
  stepfamily?
• Quote, p. 169-170, Wallerstein In looking over
  the youngest children of divorce, I was mystified
  by the fact that good remarriages did not seem to
  help them overcome the trauma of divorce.

8
Demography of step-families

• How many class members have lived in step
  families?gt
• For women, more likely to remarry if they divorce
  at a younger age
• More likelihood of remarriage among non-Hispanic
  whites (58 w/in 5 yrs) than among Hispanics
  (44) or African Americans (32) Rate of
  remarriage has declined pretty steadily since
  1960s and at current rates, about 2/3 of all
  divorced women will ever remarry
• 39 of remarried women divorce again within 10
  years (compared with 33 of first marriages

9
Questions for our class

• Why do you think theres a higher rate of divorce
  for second marriages than for first marriages?
• Why do you think remarriage after a divorce is
  more likely for non-Hispanic whites than for
  Hispanics or African Americans?
• What would you want to change in the American
  system of divorce?

10
Group assignment the Ideal Divorce

• You and your spouse, both UMD graduates, have two
  kidsa boy, age 3, and a girl, age 6. You live in
  Minnetonka, where your spouse works (earning
  40,000 per year). You work in downtown
  Minneapolis, making 45,000 per year. You are in
  agreement that your marriage is doomed. Create
  the ideal divorce/post-divorce plan FOR YOUR
  KIDS.

11
Cohabitation and step-families

• Decline in remarriage associated with steady rise
  in cohabitation
• Should probably redefine stepfamilies to include
  cohabitation situations

12
Stepfamilies redefinition from Andrew Cherlin

• Two adults are married or cohabiting, and
• At least one adult has a child present from a
  previous marriage or relationship
• Based on the National Survey of Children, almost
  2/3 of children enter stepfamilies through
  cohabitation of parent

13
Stepfamily as an incomplete institution

• Doing the work of kinship
• Andrew Cherlin If there is no relationship,
  even a blood relative may not be counted as kin.
  e.g., my cousins vs. my moms
• Stepfamilies and created kin. Rules are few and
  dependence on the work of kinship even more
  central.
• Remarriage chains a path that links individuals
  acreoss households through the ties of disrupted
  unions and new unions

14
Rights and Responsibilities of Stepparents

• Who has the legal rights of parenting in a
  post-divorce step-parent situation?
• The biological parent, and not the step parent,
  retains those legal parenting rights unless a
  court has stepped in a terminated parental
  rights.,

15
Cherlin and Furstenberg Divided Families

• Step-parents quickly discover that they have
  only been issued a limited license to parent. The
  wiser ones among them accept the limits of their
  job description and bide their time.

16
Wallerstein more demographics

• At current rates, 25 of all children will spend
  part of their growing up years in stepfamilies
• 40 of marriages in the 1990s involved one or
  both partner having been married before
• In half the remarriages in her study at least one
  of the children did not have a strong
  relationship with the step-parent

17
W Mother as mediator

• If child lives with step-father and birth-mother,
  Wallerstein argues that the mothers mediator
  role between her child(ren) and stepfather is
  particularly important. W believes it is
  important in those situations that mother
  maintain some independence from step-father
  Cherlin sees it the other way (the new marriage
  should take priority).

18
Divorce and college

• In Wallersteins study, a little less than 30 of
  kids from divorced families received full or
  consistent partial help with college expenses
  from noncustodial fathers. The comparison figure
  for the intact familes in her study was 90.
• What is it with these dads? (p. 252)

19
Effects of stepfamilies the bad news

• Children in stepfamilies no better off, on
  average, than children in divorced single parent
  households.
• This shows up in many studies, despite the
  obvious advantage in terms of economics and role
  overload.
• W National reports show us that children in
  remarriages leave home earlier than children in
  intact families.

20
Effects of stepfamilies the good news

• Most stepparents report they are happy with
  their roles and their new families. After a
  period of adjustment, most stepchildren come to
  view their stepparents positively, although not
  as positively as children view their biological
  parents. Cherlin

21
Getting married Wallerstein

• 60 of 93 in original study married by the time
  of the 25-year follow-up. Is this a low rate?
• Of those who married, half made their decision
  impulsively in late teens or early 20s
• Many of them now feel trapped
• I was shocked to discover that many of the
  lasting bad marriages in this group were as
  troubled or more troubled than the marriages
  their parents had escaped.
• Comparison group quote, p. 193

22
Discussion Groups

• Reading 23 Beyond Family Structure Family
  Process Studies Help to Reframe Debate about
  Whats Good for Children

23
Video Why Cant We Live Together?

• Movie and groups