Christopher Rhoades Dÿkema
Smartmarriages© wrote:
> subject: Child Poverty Rates Reflect Family Structure, Not Race - 5/01
>
> from: Smart Marriages
> The
> > press release can be read below, and the entire paper, "Understanding
> > Differences in Black and White Child Poverty Rates," is available online
> > at http://www.heritage.org/library/cda/cda01-04.html .
> >
> > CHILD POVERTY RATES REFLECT FAMILY STRUCTURE, NOT RACE, ANALYSIS SHOWS
> >
> > Black children are more than twice as likely to live in poverty than are
> > white children-but not because they are "born black in America," according
> > to a new study from The Heritage Foundation's Center for Data Analysis
> > (CDA).
> >
> > Examining data from the U.S. Department of Labor's National Longitudinal
> > Survey of Youth, Heritage analysts determined that child poverty rates are
> > driven primarily by single-parent households and dependency on welfare
> > benefits. When these and other, less significant, factors are taken into
> > account, the disparity between black and white child poverty rates
> > disappears.
> >
> > "Race alone does not directly increase or decrease the probability that a
> > child will be poor," says Robert Rector, Heritage's senior research fellow
> > in welfare and family issues and a co-author of the report.
> >
> > The study notes that 68.8 percent of black American children were born out
> > of wedlock in 1999, compared to 26.7 percent of white children. And black
> > children were five times more likely to be dependent on Aid for Families
> > with Dependent Children (AFDC), the government's largest welfare program.
> > Black children also live in poverty longer than whites-46.9 percent of
> > their time since birth vs. 26.7 percent for whites.
> >
> > Yet when black children and white children are grouped by levels of single
> > parenthood and welfare dependence the poverty rates for both groups are
> > nearly identical, Rector found.
> >
> > "Any meaningful strategy to reduce the disparities between black and white
> > child poverty must focus on increasing marriage and reducing welfare
> > dependence among blacks," he says.
> >
> > The analysis also found that nearly half (44.5 percent) of all children
> > born to never-married mothers depend on AFDC, compared to a fifth (20.4
> > percent) of those born out of wedlock, whose mothers later married. Only a
> > tenth (10.7 percent) of the children born to married couples who
> > subsequently divorce end up relying on AFDC, as do a mere 2.5 percent of
> > those whose parents' marriages remain intact.
> >
> > -------------------------
> > Rector's co-authors are CDA Senior Policy Analyst Kirk Johnson and Patrick
> > Fagan, Heritage's FitzGerald fellow in family and cultural issues. The
> > entire paper, "Understanding Differences in Black and White Child Poverty
> > Rates," is available online at
> > http://www.heritage.org/library/cda/cda01-04.html
> >
> xx
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