A Framework for Understanding Poverty (18 page)

(from House Ways and Means Committee 1993, P. 1453)

Better outcomes for children result with each additional year of parental education.

From 1987 to 1996, in any given year of that time period, 12 to 14 million children (or about one in five) lived in poverty.

One important cause of the increase in child poverty rates is the increase in numbers of single parents-due either to divorce or children being born outside of marriage.

199o: Two-thirds of black women and 190 of white women had children outside of marriage (Ventura, 1995).

"Poverty rates are high for children in families with one adult, particularly because employment rates are high for children in families with one adult, particularly because employment rates are low among single mothers, many of whom are young and have not completed high school."

Mayer, Susan E. What Money Can't Buy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997. P. 21.

Ibid. P. 39.

Ibid. P. 153.

Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, Duncan, Greg J., and Maritato, Nancy. Poor Families, Poor Outcomes: The Well-being of Children and Youth. Duncan, Greg J., and BrooksGunn, Jeanne, Editors. Consequences of Growing Up Poor. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 1997. P. 1.

Ibid. P. 4.

Ibid.

"Poverty rates for children in families in which a divorce has occurred are high, especially since incomes for custodial mothers drop precipitously after a divorce" (McLanahan and Sandefur, 1994; Duncan, 1991, Chapter 3)."

The number of single mothers has also risen because the divorce rate is higher than the remarriage rate.

There is a greater likelihood of black and Hispanic children being poor than white children. They are also more likely to be poor for a longer time period.

"Mothers' education is a strong and consistent predictor of children's outcomes-from IQ test scores at age five through school completion rates at age nineteen and twenty" (Duncan, Brooks-Gunn, and Klebanov, 1994; Haveman and Wolfe, 1995). "It is unclear whether the effects of mothers' education are larger or smaller than those of family income."

"While the rise of mother-only families is without doubt increasingly important as a proximate cause of childhood poverty, the historical analysis presented here strongly suggests that employment insecurity and low earnings for fathers continue to be prime determinants of the levels of and the trends in childhood poverty, both because of their direct effect on family income and because of their indirect contribution to the rise

in mother-only families. This analysis also strongly suggests that mothers' employment has become increasingly important in determining childhood poverty levels and trends, both directly because of the income mothers bring into the home and indirectly by facilitating separation and divorce."

"About half of mother-only families in the U.S. are poor during any given year." ... "About 50% of mother-only families receive welfare during the course of a year, and a nontrivial proportion are on welfare for long periods of time."

Ibid. P. 5.

Hernandez, Donald J. Poverty Trends. Duncan, Greg J., and BrooksGunn, Jeanne, Editors. Consequences of Growing Up Poor. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 1997. P. 33.

McLanahan, Sara E. Parent Absence or Poverty: Which Matters More? Duncan, Greg J., and Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, Editors. Consequences of Growing Up Poor. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 1997. P. 35.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid. P. 13.

"Poverty rates are two to three times higher for children whose mothers have never married or have divorced."

"Children who spend more time in poverty are less likely to graduate from high school, obtain fewer years of schooling, and earn less."

"Children who had spent one to three years of their adolescence in a family below the poverty line were about 60% less likely to graduate from high school than children who had never been poor. Children who had spent four years of their adolescence living in a family below the poverty line were about 75% less likely to graduate from high school ... On average, children who had spent some or all of their adolescence living in poverty obtained between i.o and 1.75 fewer years of schooling than other children."

"Parents' education (particularly the mother's education) had a positive relationship with each educational outcome." (Outcomes in this study were: high school graduation, college enrollment, and years of schooling completed.)

Smith, Judith R., BrooksGunn, Jeanne, and Klebanov, Pamela K. Consequences of Living in Poverty for Young Children's Cognitive and Verbal Ability and Early School Achievement. Duncan, Greg J., and Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, Editors. Consequences of Growing Up Poor. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 1997. P. 135.

Teachman, Jay D., Paasch, Kathleen M., Day, Randal D., and Carver, Karen P. Poverty During Adolescence and Subsequent Educational Attainment. Duncan, Greg J., and Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, Editors. Consequences of Growing Up Poor. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 1997. P. 383.

Ibid. P. 388.

Ibid. P. 398.

"Our findings indicate that poverty was negatively related to high school graduation, college attendance, and years of schooling obtained. However, much of the observed relationship can be attributed to differences in a number of control variables, such as parental education, family structure, and IQ. After the control variables were taken into account, the number of years spent below the poverty line during adolescence were not related to any of the educational outcomes considered."

"Poor parents have less schooling, on average, than do nonpoor parents, and schooling may affect parents' abilities to encourage and help their children to get an education."

"The breakup of a marriage (or the parents' failure to marry) increases the chance that a child will be poor during childhood, may lead to psychological distress, may reduce parental supervision, and may limit the child's role models for marriage and work. The distress, lack of supervision, and lack of role models could in turn lead children to be poor as adults."

"For example, poor families are also more likely to be headed by a single parent, a parent with low educational attainment, an unemployed parent, a parent in the low-wage market, a divorced parent, or a young parent. These familial conditions might account in large measure for the association between low income and less favorable outcomes for children."

"The demographic trends in family patterns and in individual behavior-changes in marriage and divorce rates, nonmarital fertility rates, and unemployment rates (especially for less educated and younger adults) -help explain the relative increase in the proportion of children in poverty."

Ibid. P. 413.

Corcoran, Mary, and Adams, Terry. Race, Sex, and the Intergenerational Transmission of Poverty. Duncan, Greg J., and Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, Editors. Consequences of Growing Up Poor. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 1997. P. 463.

Ibid.

Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, Duncan, Greg J., and Maritato, Nancy. Poor Families, Poor Outcomes: The Well-being of Children and Youth. Duncan, Greg J., and BrooksGunn, Jeanne, Editors. Consequences of Growing Up Poor. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 1997. P. 1.

Ibid. P. 4.

"By 1993, 22.7% of children were officially classified as poor, the highest poverty rate experienced by children since the mid-196os."

In 1993, 23% of children lived with their mother and with no father in the home; from 1940 to 1960, this percentage was 6 to 8% and 20% in 199o-due to divorce rates increasing and out-of-wedlock births increasing.

In 1995, 40% of children lived apart from one parent. It's estimated that more than 50% of the children born in the early 198os will be in the same situation prior to reaching 18 years of age (Bumpass, 1984).

"... [C]hildren who grow up with only one biological parent are less successful, on average, than children who grow up with both parents. These differences extend to a broad range of outcomes and they persist into adulthood" (McLanahan and Sandefur, 1994; Haveman and Wolfe, 1991; Cherlin and Furstenberg, 1991; Amato and Keith, 1991; Seltzer, 1994).

The National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), based at Columbia University, has tracked child poverty rates (under 6 years old) from 1975 to 1994. The NCCP study reports that "the young child poverty rate has grown to include one in four young children and that nearly 50 percent of American young children are near poverty or below."

"In 1994, a shocking 45 percent of young childrennearly half-were in poverty or near poverty (with incomes below 185 percent of the federal poverty line)."

Hernandez, Donald J. Poverty Trends. Duncan, Greg J., and BrooksGunn, Jeanne, Editors. Consequences of Growing Up Poor. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 1997. p. 18.

Ibid. P. 30.

McLanahan, Sara S. Parent Absence or Poverty: Which Matters More? Duncan, Greg J., and Brooks-Gunn, Jeanne, Editors. Consequences of Growing Up Poor. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 1997. P. 35.

Ibid. P. 37.

Wake Up America: Columbia University Study Shatters Stereotypes of Young Child Poverty. Internet Web site: http:// cpmcnet.columbia.edu/ news/press-releases/12-11- 96.html. December 11, 1996.

Ibid.

"Between 1975 and 1994, the young child poverty rate increased by 39 percent, leaving one in four young children (25 percent) in poverty, and the rate of young children in extreme poverty (with incomes below 50 percent of the poverty line) doubled, from 6 to 12 percent."

"[T]he young child poverty rate grew twice as fast for whites (38 percent) as for blacks (19 percent)."

"[Y]oung children living in traditional nuclear families, with two parents where one parent is employed fulltime, were 2'/2 times as likely to be poor. Their poverty rate grew from 6 to 15 percent."

"In addition, most poor children live in working families, contrary to the commonly-held belief that a family job will keep children out of poverty. In 1994, 62 percent of poor young children lived with at least one parent or relative who worked part time or full time."

"[T [he young child poverty rate grew nearly twice as fast in the suburbs (59 percent) as in urban areas (34 percent)."

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid.

"The Poorest Among Us." U.S. News & World Report. December 23, 1996. Volume 121. Number 25. P. 18.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Youth in America are the poorest among us, and their numbers continue to increase.

6.1 million children under age 6 lived in poverty in 1994. This number almost equals the combined population of Chicago and Los Angeles. The number means one in four of these children are in poverty.

"While minority youngsters are far more likely to be poor than whites, more than a third of all poor kids are white. And they have joined the ranks of the poor at twice the rate that blacks have."

"Child poverty is spreading fastest in the suburbs. Still, urban kids are most likely to be poor-40% in some cities."

"More children in two-parent families fell into povertymainly as a result of lower-paying jobs. And 62% of poor kids now have a parent who works at least part time."

Jack Levine, who is with the Florida Center for Children and Youth, said, "'None of us is immune to the concerns of children who aren't ready for education, whose health needs are served in emergency rooms and who do not have the family support to keep them out of trouble.' "

In the 1964 State of the Union address, the war on poverty was declared. The President's Council of Economic Advisors reported there was "an inverse relationship between the extent of education of family heads and the incidence of poverty."

Causes of poverty include poor education, obsolete skills, ill health, divorce, desertion, alcohol, and drugs.

"Death, divorce, desertion, and illegitimacy deprive many families of a male breadwinner, and this unquestionably contributes to poverty."

"The Navajos on their reservation in Arizona are a good example of poverty surrounded by opulence, and of the `invisible poor.' Their circumstances demonstrate how the definition of poverty is relative to the situation."

"The rise of the single-parent family has led to increased poverty among both adults and children."

"Perhaps the most important factor in the increase of poverty during the 198os has been the steady decline in wage levels, so that we now have in America a group we call the working poor-people who do have jobs, who work hard, who try desperately to stay afloat as providers [for) families (sometimes men, sometimes women) but who earn such wretchedly low wages that they sink below the poverty line."

Ibid.

Seligman, Ben B. The Numbers of Poor. Penchef, Esther, Editor. Four Horsemen: Pollution, Poverty, Famine, Violence. San Francisco, CA: Canfield Press, 1971. P. 93.

Dicks, Lee E. The Poor Who Live Among Us. Penchef, Esther, Editor. Four Horsemen: Pollution, Poverty, Famine, Violence. San Francisco, CA: Canfield Press, 1971. p. 118.

Ibid. P. 120.

U.S. News & World Report. Where the Real Poverty Is: Plight of American Indians. Penchef, Esther, Editor. Four Horsemen: Pollution, Poverty, Famine, Violence. San Francisco, CA: Canfield Press, 1971. P. 155.

Harrington, Michael. The Other America. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1962. P. xv.

Ibid. pp. xv-xvi.

Some of the evidence to support the changes in family life includes:

"One of every two marriages in the United States currently ends in divorce ... Each year, more than 1.5 million children-nearly 2.5 percent of all U.S. children-undergo the painful experience of seeing their parents separate or divorce."

"Marriage rates have declined, and a growing proportion of adults are forgoing or at least deferring legal marriage."

"The number of children born outside of marriage is growing."

"Large numbers of adult females are raising children on their own, often in poverty or welfare dependency. In 1991, there were 11.7 million female-headed families in the United States, and 36 percent of them, 4.2 million, were poor. Female-headed families made up more than half of all poor families in the country in contrast to 1959, when fewer than 2 million female-headed families lived in poverty, and constituted only 23 percent of all poor families" (data from U.S. Bureau of the Census, Poverty in the United States: 1991. Current Population Reports, Series F-6o, Number 181. Washington, DC: GPO, August 1992).