Losing Generations Adolescents in High-Risk Settings (1993) / Chapter Skim
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3 FAMILIES
3 FAMILIES
Pages 41-62
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From page 41... ...
FAMILY ECONOMICS AND FAMILY STRUCTURE Chapter 2 reviewed the deteriorating economic position of primeage young adults. This chapter begins by elaborating on the consequences of those trends for young families with children.
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From page 42... ...
Economic hardships are linked to family disintegration and to the increase in single-parent households. Further, single parents and parents experiencing economic hardship are less likely to use the "good" parenting practices that can help some children overcome the risks associated with their domestic and economic circumstances {Dornbusch, 1989; Spivak and Weitzman, 1987; Dubow and Luster, 1990~.
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From page 43... ...
For example, only 69 percent of whites, 65 percent of blacks, and 61 percent of Hispanic unmarried youth from families with low earnings will graduate from high school or earn a general equivalency diploma by age 24 ;Mortenson and Wu, 19901. The high failure rates among low income students reflect, in substantial measure, the fact that many Tow-income students live in single-parent homes.
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From page 44... ...
Adolescent birthrates, which had (lecTinecl steadily since World War II, began rising again in 1985, and by 1989 were higher than they had been since the early 1970s {Figure 3-11. But while births to unmarried women represented only 15 percent of all births to adolescents in 1960, and 30 percent in 1970, by 1989 over 67 percent of teenage mothers were unmarried, including 92 percent of black teenage mothers Moore, 1992~.
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From page 45... ...
The data in Table 3-3 show that, despite increased maternal participation in the labor market, the economic security of children substantially declines after divorce. More ~llll~l all vv all ~,~ ~ Arcs ~ An, ~ ~ r ~ -A ~
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From page 46... ...
Less educated and minority mothers are less likely to receive child support payments than are educated and nonminority mothers {U.S. Congress, 1991:666; Garfinkel and McLanahan, 1 986J.
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Congress, 1991; Children's Defense Fund and Northeastern University Center for Labor Market Studies, 19921. The cumulative result is that full-time working poor families may actually be the poorest of the poor after taking into account the income transfer payments that are available to the nonworking poor but not to those who are employed {Ellwoo(l, 19881.
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From page 48... ...
parent working poor families in rural areas face perhaps the greatest degree of hardship because rural areas generally offer fewer social services and benefits than urban areas ~ Shapiro, 19901. FAMILY STRUCTURE, PARENTING STYLES, AND ADOLESCENT OUTCOMES There is a broad literature on the relationships among family structure, family processes, and adolescent outcomes.
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From page 49... ...
ChiZ3ren of SingZe-Parent Families Adolescents growing up in single-parent families are disadvantaged in a number of ways that compromise their future, and the consequences have been shown to persist over multiple generations {McLanahan, 1986~. Although the strong correlation between single-parent househoic3s and poverty makes it difficult to entirely distinguish the effects of poverty from those of single parenting, studies demonstrate that growing up in a single-parent household often has damaging effects regardless of income.
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But, among the poor, the proportion of parents who, despite their stressful life circumstances, are able to provide quality care is, under present conditions, not very large. And even for this minority, the parents' buffering power lapins to decline sharply lay the time children are five or six years old and exposed to impoverished and disruptive settings outside the home.
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From page 51... ...
Children of Divorce Children from divorced families must confront the emotional stress of a breakup the often prolonged time preceding and subsequent to divorce proceedings in Edition to conditions associated with single parenthood. Many of these children experience elevated levels of depression and anger, and declining school performance and self-esteem.
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From page 52... ...
Among adolescent mothers receiving AFDC, blacks were more likely than whites to remain in their parents' home after childbirth, continuing schooling and delaying marriage; they stayed longer on welfare, but were more likely to graduate from high school iTesta, 1992J. Parenting Stylle Parenting style is a concept used by researchers to identify variations in the interactions and childrearing practices that characterize family life.
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From page 53... ...
Building on Baumrind's framework, other researchers have sought to identify the specific components of parenting style that are most powerful in affecting adolescent outcomes. For example, joint decision making between parents and adolescents contributes to positive adolescent outcomes {Epstein, 1991; Dornbusch and Gray, 1988~.
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From page 54... ...
Living in a census tract with a substantial proportion of minority residents affects non-Hispanic whites as well as blacks, reducing the influence of family statuses. That most blacks live in such census tracts, and fewer non-Hispanic whites clo, helps to explain the ethnic differences in the influences of family statuses on adolescent school performance [Dornbusch and Ritter, 19911.
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~1 1 abuse six times greater, and the rate of serious injury seven times greater than for the children of more affluent families jSec3lak, 1988~. Child abuse and neglect are strongly associated with negative adolescent outcomes.
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As a result children are increasingly on their own-an estimated 1.3 million children age 5 to 14 must care for themselves during the hours when they are not in school National Commission on Children, l991al. The combination of financial insecurity for an increasing proportion of families, increased work effort by parents seeking to maintain their living standard, and the demographic changes that have so dramatically increased the number of children and adolescents living in single-parent households result in increasing numbers of adolescents who do not receive the nurturance necessary for positive development.
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From page 57... ...
Department of Commerce. Children's Defense Fund and Northeastern University Center for Labor Market Studies 1992 Vanishing Dreams: The Economic Plight of America's Young Families.
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Leiderman, A.H., Hastorf, and R.T. Gross 1985 Single parents, extended households, and the control of adolescents.
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II. Committee on Child Development Research and Public Policy, Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, National Research Council.
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Luster, T., and E Dubow 1990 Predictors of the quality of the home environment that adolescent mothers provide for their school-aged children.
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Dornbusch 1991 Authoritative parenting and adolescent adjustment across varied ecological niches. Journal of Research on Adolescence 1:19-36.
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From page 62... ...
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 1992 National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System.
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