title: Children in single-father families in demographic perspective.
abstract: The purpose of this article is to examine single-parent families headed by fathers. "We use specially constructed child files from the 1960-1990 Public Use Microdata Samples data from the Census of Population to address two general questions: (a) To what extent has both the likelihood and the demographic characteristics of these families changed over time? (b) What are the consequences for children of living in different kinds of father-only families? We find that single-father families are comparatively rare, but increasing rapidly, especially since 1980. Increasingly, these families are formed by fathers who are young, never married, with low incomes, and fewer children. Analysis of the 1990 data reveals wide diversity in living arrangements among children in single-father families. Furthermore, the social capital of children's fathers, the availability of adults, and children's economic well-being vary markedly across these types of families."
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Eggebeen
authors.forename: A R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Snyder
authors.forename: W D
authors.initials: WD
authors.lastname: Manning
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D000569:Americas; D002648:Child; D003710:Demography; D019049:Developed Countries; D004467:Economics; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005843:Geography; D017533:Marital Status; D008393:Marriage; D009656:North America; D011153:Population; D011154:Population Characteristics; D011203:Poverty; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012847:Single Person; D020954:Single-Parent Family; D012923:Social Class; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States
keywords: Age Factors; Americas; Child; Demographic Factors; Developed Countries; Economic Factors; Family And Household; Family Characteristics; Geographic Factors; Head Of Household--men; Households; Living Arrangements; Low Income Population; Marital Status; Never Married; North America; Northern America; Nuptiality; One Parent Family--men; Population; Population Characteristics; Residence Characteristics; Social Class; Socioeconomic Factors; Socioeconomic Status; Spatial Distribution; United States; Youth