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The Reversal of Favorable Child Living Arrangement Trends of the Late 1990s
Author(s) -
Primus Wendell E.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
review of policy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.832
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1541-1338
pISSN - 1541-132X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1541-1338.2006.00225.x
Subject(s) - welfare , welfare reform , recession , context (archaeology) , economics , single mothers , standard of living , birth rate , demographic economics , development economics , sociology , geography , demography , population , psychology , fertility , macroeconomics , developmental psychology , archaeology , market economy
Abstract During the late 1990s, there was a notable shift in child living arrangements toward two‐parent households and away from single parenthood. Whether due to economic factors, declining teen birth rates, welfare reform, or some other cultural cause or a combination of these factors, something happened in the 1990s that stabilized marriage rates and led to declines in single‐parent households. There was also considerable hope that the federal welfare reforms enacted in 1996 might be responsible for the change in these trends. However, since 2000, while the downward trend in teen births continues, the gains in percentage of children living with two parents have been virtually eliminated. This article carefully documents these recent trends, examines the relationship of recessions on child living arrangements, and concludes that it is impossible to disentangle the role of welfare reform from its broader economic, policy, and demographic context.