WASHINGTON (AP) — Asians are less likely than whites or blacks to have households headed by single mothers, according to new census data that reflect racial differences in the makeup of the American family.
The trend is clear in both small states and states with large urban centers. Data released Tuesday for Maryland, for instance, showed that 4.2 percent of Asian family households were headed by a single mother, compared with 6.6 percent of non-Hispanic white families and 25.1 percent of black families.
In New York, 4.4 percent of Asian family households were headed by a single mother, compared with 6.8 percent of non-Hispanic white families and 29.6 percent of black families.
The data from census figures released so far to 20 states and the District of Columbia could refocus attention on long-noted cultural and socio-economic differences among racial and ethnic groups.
During the 1990s, many Asian Americans were new immigrants who typically come from traditionally more conservative, family centered backgrounds and ``do not really accept nontraditional households,'' said Sharon Lee, a sociology professor at Portland State University.
But that upbringing may also cause a possible undercount in Asian single-mother households, said Christopher Kui, executive director of Asian Americans for Equality.
Because divorce and single-motherhood tend to have more of a social stigma in Asian families, ``there are hidden separations that people don't talk about,'' Kui said.
Nationally, there was a 25 percent increase between 1990 and 2000 in the category of ``female householder, no husband present with own children under 18,'' regardless of race.
That category could also include a woman raising a child with an unmarried partner, or a woman living with a parent or friend who helps with child-rearing. But surveys show that most of those households include only single mothers, bureau analyst Jason Fields said.
There are no national breakdowns by race and Hispanic origin available yet for 2000.
On the state level, references to race in 2000 refer to those who selected only one race on their form; the figures do not include those who may have taken advantage of the first-ever option of checking off more than one race.
The share of Asian single-mother family households was lower than for whites and blacks in 15 of the 20 states released. All 50 states are scheduled to get their numbers by next month.
Overall, single-parent homes have risen tremendously over the past 30 years, though census surveys indicate that the increases have slowed during the latter half of the 1990s, said John Haaga, a demographer with the Population Reference Bureau.
Montana had one of the highest percentages of Asian single-mother homes at 10.4 percent. By comparison, one of the highest shares for black families was in Nebraska, where 34 percent were single-mother homes.
Black women tend to have a higher percentage of out-of-wedlock births than other minority groups, said Paul Watanabe, co-director of the Institute for Asian-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts-Boston.
Bianca Robinson, 21 and black, divides her time raising a 2-year-old daughter on her own and working in a pre-law program at the University of Illinois.
Her daughter spends much of the summer with her father, whom Robinson did not marry and does not live with. Robinson depends on friends to help care for the child while she is in class or at work.
``For some people I know, the child's father isn't involved, and some of them have a harder time financially,'' said Robinson, who helps organize a group for single mothers of all races at the school. ``I get a lot of help.''
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