“The strongest and most robust predictor [of social mobility] is the fraction of children with single parents. . . . [Children] of married parents also have higher rates of upward mobility if they live in communities with fewer single parents.”UPDATE 4/16/15: Decades of Income Inequality is due to Demise of Married-parent Families with Children, Study Shows
-- Harvard University study Where is the Land of Opportunity? The Geography of Intergenerational Mobility in the United States
For background, click headlines below for previous articles:
ObamaNation: Perpetual Poor Barred from Marriage
More Women Shack Up & Give Birth; Marriage Rare
Violence & Poverty due to Absence of Intact Family
Liberalism Causes Poverty in America: Study
Liberals Admit to Destruction of African Americans
Marriage Essential for Children: Studies
Study Shows Gay Parenting Harms Children
Supreme Court's New Morality Means Justice for Polygamy
-- From "Economists: Your Parents Are More Important Than Ever" by Derek Thompson, The Atlantic 1/23/14
. . . your parents' marriage (or living arrangement) matters. The single strongest predictor of a child's economic fortunes is the fraction of single parents in the area where she grew up. Children of married parents have a much better shot of getting ahead even if they're in areas where single parents are the norm. "The fraction of children living in single-parent households is the strongest correlate of upward income mobility among all the variables we explored," the researchers said.
It's important not to overstate the causality here. Rich single parents tend to produce richer children than married couples living in poverty. Instead it's best to see marriages as a powerful centripetal force in the vicious cycle of poverty. Low-income parents tend to have children who grow up to be lower-income, who are in turn more likely to form single-parent households and raise children who follow this well-worn life path.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Economic mobility hasn’t changed in a half-century in America, economists declare" by Jim Tankersley, Washington Post 1/22/14
Incorporating results from a previous study dating back to the 1950s, the [Harvard] authors concluded that “measures of social mobility have remained remarkably stable over the second half of the twentieth century in the United States.”
Several economists who study mobility and inequality expressed surprise at that stasis — starting with Chetty, the lead author. “I am really struck by how stable it seems to be,” he said in an interview. “I would not have expected that, because many things have changed over time.”
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Family Matters" by W. Bradford Wilcox, posted at Slate 1/22/14
[The Harvard study] explores the community characteristics most likely to predict mobility for lower-income children. The study specifically focuses on two outcomes: absolute mobility for lower-income children—that is, how far up the income ladder they move as adults; and relative mobility—that is, how far apart children who grew up rich and poor in the same community end up on the economic ladder as adults. . . .
. . . this is the first major study showing that rates of single parenthood at the community level are linked to children’s economic opportunities over the course of their lives. A lot of research—including new research from the Brookings Institution—has shown us that kids are more likely to climb the income ladder when they are raised by two, married parents. But this is the first study to show that lower-income kids from both single- and married-parent families are more likely to succeed if they hail from a community with lots of two-parent families.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Poverty and Opportunity: Begin with Facts" by Ron Haskins, The Brookings Institution 1/28/14
Changes in marriage rates over the past decade are astounding. Between 1970 and 2010, the percentage of 35 year old women living in married-couple families with children fell from about 78 percent to 50 percent while the percentage of women who were single and living with children more than doubled from 9 percent to over 20 percent. This demographic trend has two major effects that work against our goals of reducing poverty and increasing mobility. First, children in single-parent families are four times as likely to be poor as children in married-couple families. Thus, the rising share of children in female-headed families is a major force pushing up the child poverty rate. No one thinks being reared in poverty is good for children and their development. Second, there is now all but universal agreement that the best rearing environment for children is a married-couple family. Not only do married-couple families have more money to invest in their children, but they also spend more time with their children and use child rearing techniques that are more conductive to child development. Research shows that disadvantaged parents, usually single mothers, spend less time with their children, talk with them less, and are more likely to use child-rearing techniques that are associated with poor developmental outcomes, especially corporal punishment.
. . . The most straightforward way to reduce poverty and increase opportunity would be to reverse these trends. However, the changes in family composition have been proceeding for more than four decades and show no signs of abating, despite a host of efforts by policy makers. . . .
. . . Nonmarital births increase the nation’s poverty rate, increase income inequality, and have deleterious effects on children’s development. Parents, children, and the nation as a whole would benefit from a reduction in the nation’s nonmarital birth rate. . . .
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "2-Parent Families Are Best Predictor of Upward Mobility for Poor, Harvard Study Finds" by Napp Nazworth, Christian Post Reporter 1/23/14
Copious studies have long shown that marriage helps families leave and stay out of poverty. What is most interesting, though, about the new study by Harvard economists Raj Chetty, Nathaniel Hendren and Patrick Kline, and Berkeley economist Emmanuel Saez is that it is a community-level analysis.
This means that poor children who live in communities with a large proportion of single parents are more likely to remain poor even when they are raised by their married mother and father. Or, another way of saying the same thing, poor children who are raised by a single parent but live in a community where most children are raised by both parents are more likely to escape poverty.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
Also read Obama-Schooling Should Begin at Age 18 Months as well as Black Abortion Key to Reducing Poverty, Says Mayor
