DOCUMENT RESUME ED 425 039 RC 021 738 AUTHOR Fitchen, Janet M. TITLE "The Single-Parent Family" and Welfare Reform: Is Marriage the Solution? INSTITUTION Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY. Community and Rural Development Inst. PUB DATE 1995-01-00 NOTE 6p. PUB TYPE Collected Works Serials (022) Reports Evaluative (142) JOURNAL CIT Community Development: Research Briefs & Case Studies; v3 n1 Jan 1995 EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Child Welfare; Economic Factors; Economically Disadvantaged; Eligibility; Family Structure; *Fatherless Family; Marriage; *Poverty; Public Policy; *Rural Family; *Rural Women; *Welfare Recipients; Welfare Services IDENTIFIERS *Single Parents; *Welfare Reform ABSTRACT Many proposals for welfare reform center on the issue of marriage-based families versus single-parent families and oversimplify the relationship between single-parenting and poverty. Research done in upstate rural New York among low-income families showed that personal and economic characteristics of married and single mothers were similar as to age range, average age at birth of first child, and number of children. Single-parent families fall into four groups, suggesting that different strategies would be needed to reduce their reliance on public assistance: young and never married, young and separated or divorced, older and never married, and older and separated or divorced. The study concludes that the "single-parent family" as a category of analysis has the following policy-relevant shortcomings: misleading contrast between households with unmarried mothers and those with married mothers, implied uniformity of families within each category, and lack of temporal and qualitative dimensions. Policy recommendations include reducing birth rates among single women, evaluating employability of prospective husbands, full and regular payment of child support, assessment of violent or abusive marital status, and evaluating use of extended families. Keeping rural single mothers and their children out of poverty requires strengthening the economy so that adequate jobs are available for women and for men, reducing the gender-based earnings gap, and providing more opportunities for advancement above starting wage levels. A pro-marriage policy is no substitute for an anti-poverty policy. (Author/SAS) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** 0, .in Community Development tr) Research Briefs & Case Studies CNI Cornell Community and Rural Development Institute Vol. 3, No. 1, January 1995 "The Single-Parent Family" and WelfareReform: Is Marriage the Solution ? Janet M. Fitchen U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research andImprovement PERMISSION TO REPRODUCEAND EDUCATIONAL RESOURCESINFORMATION DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIALHAS CENTER (ERIC) BEEN GRANTED BY gril-his document has been reproduced as received from the person ororganization originating it. _a_tra h O Minor changes have beenmade to improve reproduction quality. Sacc.x) TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES in this Points of view or opinions stated INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) document do not necessarilyrepresent official OERI position or policy. BEST COPY AVAILABLE Community Development Research Briefs & Case Studies Cornell Community and Rural Development Institute Vol. 3, No. 1, January 1995 "The Single-Parent Family" and Welfare Reform: Is Marriage the Solution ? Janet M. Fitchen Executive Summary considering the appropriateness of various welfare-reform strategies. Between 1990 One focus of many welfare reform proposals is "the single-parent and 1992, I conducted field research family." However, field research among rural poor families in upstate among low-income families in the same New York suggests that marriage-based welfare reform rests on upstate rural communities where I had several incorrect assumptions about single parent families. In-depth previously explored poverty and other householdhistories revealed that single mothers living in poverty are rural issues. This extensive field research actually quite varied, but they can be grouped into four distinct sub- included an exploratory examination of categories based on age and marital history.For each group, "single-parent families." different strategies are needed to promote family self-sufficiency, but in no group would marriage be an appropriate solution for household Methodology poverty. This research demonstrates the need to understand the I began by reviewing written records realities of poor families before redesigning welfare. of schools, welfare departments, ""::,1,4. 'T. community action agencies, and other public and private social agencies, then, followed with interviews and focus group Poverty andSingle-Parent to ask policy-relevant questions These concerning the core concept underlying sessions with their staffs. Families practitioners refe-red me to local low- marriage-based welfare reform: What is Over one-fi fth of the nation's children income families with whom I conducted are living in poverty, but recent public "the single parentfamily?" Would single- parent families no longer need publicfocus group sessions and 20 unstructured and political dialogue has focused less on in-depth interviews. the poverty than on the cost of providingassistance if their "female heads" were On the basis of this research, I welfare for those children. The Clintonto marry the fathers of their children? designed a detailed questionnaire on administration vowed to "end welfare as residential and household history that was we know it," and the debate over how toResearch Among Rural Low utilized in interviews with 40 additional reform the welfare system has heated upIncome Families low-income mothers.Analysis of the since the 1994 elections. Many proposals Single parenthood isstillless common among the rural poor than the household histories, supported and center on the issue of single-parenthood. augmented by the other interviews and Marriage-based welfare reform is urban poor, but it has become increasingly common, characterizing 39 percent ofinstitutional data, raises some questions attractive because of its common sense about the common conceptualization of appeal: two earners are better than one;rural poor households with children in 1987. Poverty analysts have found thatsingle parenthood and the policy thrust of two parents are better than one. But it reducing welfare rolls through focusing rural single-parent families face a triple overlooks the complexities of structure on "the single-parent family." and family dynamics, and oversimplifiespoverty risk: they are more likely than the relationship between metropolitan singleSynopsis of Findings single-parenting and Marriage-based welfare parent families to be 'poverty. reform oversimplifies the poor, to be in deepNo Overall Aversion to Marriage This paper is not relationship between poverty, and to stay poor Out of the questionnaire sample, fully intended to downplay the single-parenting and for a longer time. one-fourth (ten women) were married risks for children growing poverty. and living with husbands at the time of up in low-income The Study Area interview. Of the 30 who weren't, 70 families with only one parent, nor the Upstate New York, though neitherpercent (21 women) had already been economic and social costs society bearsthe most isolated nor the poorest of rural married, but their particular marriages for these children. Rather, my purpose is areas, provides a useful research site forhad not worked out. Thus, over three- CaRDI provides research, education and policy analysis on critical community and rural development issues BEST COPY-AVAI'4BLE 3 fourths of the sample (31 of the 40) had between 17 and 23, and have not yetGroup III: Older and never married at least given marriage a try. married. Individual and group interviews(n = 4) revealed that a paramount interest in theirStrategies: Training for employment Similarities Between Single-Parent lives is their relationship with men; butwhich utilized nurturing tendencies. and Two-Parent Families accompanying life-history materials These women, ages 27 to 35, Personal and economic character- suggest that the relationships they. form representan interesting and quite distinct istics of married and single women in tend to be unsatisfactory, unstable, and situation. They have lived with a series of the sample are surprisingly similar. The short-lived. men, and have had sufficiently difficult women were similarly distributed across Policy initiatives to entice thesepartner experiences, or have observed the age range of 17 to 44; average age at women into marrying their currentsuch negative marriage experiences birth of the first child was boyfriends as a among friends and relatives, that they 19; andtheyhad Most separated/divorced 774- requirement for vow never to get married. They may still approximately the same women viewed extrica- maintaining welfarebe attracted and attractive to men and number of children: 2.4 tion from a bad marriage, benefits or obtainingmay bear the children of a series of children per single mother as a very positive change benefits for their nextpartners. They tend to see their main role as compared to 2.2 per in their lives. child would be unwise.in life as mother; and they appear to be married mother. Rather than encourag- warm, competent mothers, extending this The ten women whowere