Divorce Statistics: Effects on Black Community
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(For rates, see Divorce Statistics for
African Americans)
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DIVORCE AND MARRIAGE AFFECT BLACK CHILDREN MORE
May 25, 2005
Divorce and marriage play much bigger economic roles for black children
than
white children in the United States, according to a new study by two UC
Davis economists. Marianne Page and Ann Huff Stevens find that in the first
two years
following a divorce, family income among white children falls about 30
percent, while it falls by 53 percent among black children.
"This difference increases dramatically in the long run," Page
and Stevens write. "Three or more years after the divorce, about a
third of the loss in whites' household income is recouped, but the income
of black families barely improves."
In fact, three or more years after the divorce, the black families' income
remains 47 percent lower than if the parents had remained together. Marriage
appears to have even greater benefits for black children whose single mothers
marry than for their white counterparts, according to the study.
Page and Stevens estimate that while the family income of white children
rises by 45 percent when their single parent marries, the family income
of black children rises by 81 percent with marriage. One reason for the
difference in improvement is that married black mothers are more likely
to work than married white mothers. On the other hand, when divorce occurs,
the probability of black mothers working does not change, while recently
divorced white women have an 18 percent greater probability
of working.
The study, published in the February 2005 issue of Demography, followed
a
nationally representative, longitudinal survey of Americans conducted by
the
University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research.
Contact the researchers at:
o Marianne Page, Economics, (530) 752-1551, mepage@ucdavis.edu
o Ann Huff Stevens, Economics, (530) 752-3034, annstevens@ucdavis.edu
o Susanne Rockwell, UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-9841,
sgrockwell@ucdavis.edu
>From the Smart Marriages listserv
_______________________________________________________________________________
"The Consequences of Marriage for African Americans: A Comprehensive
Literature Review"
by: Lorraine Blackmun, et al
Press Release: October 24, 2005
"A newly released study by a team of family scholars estimates that
marriage typically brings a host of important benefits to African American
men, women, and children. On average, married African Americans are wealthier,
happier, and choose healthier behaviors than their unmarried peers, and
their children typically fare better in life-differences that indeed seem
to stem largely from marriage itself. At the same time, however, African
American women tend to benefit from marriage less than Whites and men. These
are among the key findings presented in The Consequences of Marriage
for African Americans, a first-of-its-kind report based on reviews of
125 social science articles and a new statistical analysis of national survey
data. The study was conducted under the auspices of the Institute for American
Values, a nonpartisan think-tank based in New York City...."
Please visit http://www.americanvalues.org/html/consequences.htm
to order a copy of the report.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Having No Dad Affects Black Boys' Self-Esteem
Domestic assault & urban "community disinvestment",
nonmarriage/divorce
Today the number of children born into a black marriage averages less
than 0.9 children per marriage. "The birthrates of black married women
have fallen so sharply that absent out-of-wedlock childbearing, the African
American population would not only fail to reproduce itself, but would rapidly
die off."
The Abolition of Marriage, by Maggie Gallagher
p. 120, citing Reynolds Forley, "After the Starting Line: Blacks
and Women in an Uphill Pace," Demography 25, no. 4 (November 1988):
487, Figure 6.
During the days of slavery a black child was more likely to grow up living
with both parents than he or she is today.
Andrew J. Cherlin, Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage, rev. and enl. ed., (Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992), 110 . See also Herbert G. Gutman,
The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750-1925 (New York: Pantheon,
1976). For a review of this and similar studies see Stanley L. Engerman,
"Black Fertility and Family Structure in the U.S. 1880-1940,"
Journal of Family History 2 (Summer 1977): 177ff. Cited in The
Abolition of Marriage, by Maggie Gallagher page 117
As recently as 1960, three-quarters of African Americans were born into
a family of a married couple.
Christopher Jencks, "Is the American Underclass Growing," 86,
Table 14. In Jencks and Peterson, eds., Urban Underclass, (Washington, D.C.:
Brookings Institution, 1991). Cited in The Abolition
of Marriage, by Maggie Gallagher page 117
"Today only [one-third] of black children have two parents in the
home."
Dennis A. Ahlburg and Carol J. DeVita, "New Realities of the American
Family," Population Bulletin 47, no.2 (August 1992) 8. Cited in The
Abolition of Marriage, by Maggie Gallagher page 117
"Black children are only half as likely as white children to be living
in a two-parent household, and are eight times more likely than white children
to live with an unwed mother. For black children under six, 'the most common
arrangement -- applying to 42 percent of them -- was to live with a never-married
mother.'"
The Abolition of Marriage, by Maggie Gallagher
p. 117, citing Andrew J. Cherlin, Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage, rev.
and enl. ed., (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992), 98-99.
An African American women averages less than one child during marriage.
The Abolition of Marriage, by Maggie Gallagher
p. 120, citing Jencks, "American Underclass," 86. In Jencks
and Peterson, eds., Urban Underclass, (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution,
1991).
"Only 18 percent of black women who married in the 1940s eventually
divorced, a rate only slightly higher than that for white women of that
era. But, of that far smaller number of black women who married in the late
sixties and early seventies, 60 percent have already divorced."
The Abolition of Marriage, by Maggie Gallagher
page 117, Dennis A. Ahlburg and Carol J. DeVita, "New Realities
of the American Family," Population Bulletin 47, no.2 (August 1992):
15.
"In 1960, 23 percent of black children were born to unwed mothers.
Today the proportion is nearly the same for whites, and the rate is rising
rapidly."
Jencks, "American Underclass," Table 14, 86. In Jencks and Peterson,
eds., Urban Underclass, (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1991).
Cited in The Abolition of Marriage, by Maggie
Gallagher page 126
"In 1960, only 60 percent of black women ages twenty-five to twenty-nine
were married. In 1990, only 62 percent of white women in this age group
were married. Today the average white woman will spend only 43 percent of
her life married, very close to the 40 percent a black woman spent in marriage
in 1950."
Robert D. More and Christopher Winship, "Socioeconomic Change and the
Decline of Marriage for Blacks and Whites," 175. In Jencks and Peterson,
eds., Urban Underclass, (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1991).
page 120
Andrew J. Cherlin, Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage, rev. and enl. ed., (Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992), 95. Cited in The
Abolition of Marriage, by Maggie Gallagher page 120
"'Exposure to single motherhood at some point during adolescence increases
the risk [of a daughter's later becoming a single mother] by nearly [150
percent] for whites and.....by about 100 percent for blacks.'"
Sara S. McLanahan, "Family Structure and Dependency: Reality Transitions
to Female Household Headship," Demography 25, Feb., 1988, 1-16. Cited
in Amneus, The Garbage Generation, page 240
A recent study for the journal Criminology has revealed that "neighborhoods
with larger portions of adults who are less 'invested' in marriage and residential
stability are more likely to see higher rates of assault by African-American
males." Analysis of the data reveals that "the proportion of residents
without married couples...maintains the strongest relationship with intimate
assault rates for African-Americans..." This leads to the conclusion
that "lower levels of marital commitments and stable residents constitute...significant
barriers to the development of social capital [an important determinant
of healthy community life] among minorities."
Woodredge, J. and Thistlethwaite, A. (2003) Neighborhood structure and race-specific
rates of intimate assault. Criminology, v41. Retrieved from The
Family in America, April 2004.
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