Family Facts: Social Science Research on Family, Society & Religion

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This finding looks at the relationship between childhood poverty and family structure.

Living in a non-married household increased the likelihood of experiencing poverty during childhood. By age six, 68 percent of children in non-married households had experienced at least one year of poverty, compared to 12 percent of children in married households. By age twelve, 78 percent of children in non-married households had experienced at least one year of poverty compared to 18 percent of children in married households; and by age seventeen, 81 percent of children in non-married households had experienced at least one year of poverty compared to 22 percent of children in married households. The study found that “[c]hildren in nonmarried households who are 1 year old have exceeded the risk of poverty that children in married households experience during their entire 17 years of childhood.”

Sample or Data Description
Data come from the 1968-1992 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID).

Source
"The Economic Risk of Childhood in America: Estimating the Probability of Poverty Across the Formative Years"
Rank, Mark R.
Hirschl, Thomas A.
Journal of Marriage and Family Vol. 61, Number 4. November, 1999. Page(s) 1058-1067.

FindingID: 8363