National Marriage Week: What the Collapse of Marriage Means for Children

Sarah Torre / February 10, 2011

The decline of marriage in recent years not only signals trouble for the men and women missing out on the stability of the institution; it can also threaten the future success of children born outside the economic protection of marriage. The 41 percent of children born in the U.S. to never-married mothers are at a higher risk of experiencing poverty at some point in their lifetimes than are those born to married parents.

With a high rate of unwed childbearing among young women and a lack of education among never-married mothers, a child born outside of marriage has a greater chance of sharing in his or her mother’s economic plight. Single, unwed mothers are often young and ill-equipped to maintain an adequate income to support a family. Just under 40 percent of unwed childbearing occurs to women in their early 20s, and those with less than a high school diploma are eight times more likely to give birth outside of marriage than are college-educated women.

Households headed by single females have two-fifths the median income of married families. Even among married families with only one income, the single mother’s average salary is still lower. This relative lack of income means a child born to an unwed mother is six times more likely to experience poverty than the same child born to married parents. In fact, over half of children raised by a single mother currently live in poverty. Most startling, while poverty rates are higher among unmarried women regardless of race, almost half of African-Americans live in a single-parent household. (more…)