Reconsidering the increase in father-only families.
Previously reported estimates of rapid growth rates among father-only families did not account for cohabitation. An explicit treatment of cohabitation removes about half of the presumed growth. Nevertheless, we find that the number of father-only families grew at more than double the rate of mother-only families during the 1980s. Decomposition analyses show that the largest factor associated with the increase is that fathers now head a greater proportion of all formerly married single-parent families with children. Although the share of single-parent families headed by fathers is larger in 1990 than in 1980 even after controlling for cohabitation, it is smaller than in 1970.
Garasky
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Human Development and Family Studies, Iowa State University, Ames 50011, USA. sgarasky@iastate.edu
Meyer
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DR
D002648:Child; D002655:Child Custody / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D015986:Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005220:Fathers; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017678:Sex Distribution; D015406:Single Parent / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States