5 Top Takeaways from a New Publication and a Brookings Webinar on Single-Parent Families
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Top Takeaways is a series of recaps from important conversations, town halls, webinars and virtual events about early learning.
live in single-parent families, and they are far more likely to experience food and housing insecurity, and other hazards of poverty. , published in the Fall 2022 volume of the ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, delves into the policy possibilities for these families. On Dec. 1, the Brookings Institution held a webinar featuring many of the publication’s contributors.
“Child poverty in rich countries is especially compelling,” editors Janet C. Gornick, Laurie C. Maldonado and Amanda Sheely assert , “because it is rooted not so much in scarce aggregate resources but mainly in distributional arrangements, both private and public.”
Here are 5 top takeaways:
1. Compared to other high-income countries, the United States does little to support single-parent families. The consequences are dire, especially for the youngest children, whose brains are undergoing such rapid development. “Adequate poverty relief doesn’t come cheaply,” said Ive Marx, professor at the University of Antwerp and director of the Centre for Social Policy, likening the layers of support to a policy lasagna. “It takes universal benefits and targeted supplements to keep families out of poverty.”
Zachary Parolin, senior fellow at the Center on Poverty & Social Policy at Columbia University, presented findings that showed volatility in poverty rates during the pandemic but also ways that federal stimulus and relief smoothed it out. Thomas Biegert from the London School of Economics looked at child care benefits, dispelling the myth that generous benefits are a disincentive to work.
2. No single-parent families are alike. They vary by age, race, socioeconomic status and more. Keeping the heterogeneity of these families in mind should prevent academics and policymakers alike from making generalizations. “Despite the seemingly strong relationship between single motherhood prevalence and racial inequality in child poverty in the United States, a growing literature casts doubt on the explanatory power of family structure,” University of Pennsylvania sociologist Regina S. Baker writes .
3. Promoting marriage remains a risky “proposition.” University of Maryland economist Melissa Kearney noted appreciatively that the ANNALS volume steers clear of culture war arguments (see video below to relive 1992, if you dare) and advocated for the continued separation of benefits from parental marital status. “Focusing on marriage promotion misses the point,” said Baker, observing that family structure operates differently for different racial and ethnic groups.
Isabel Sawhill, senior fellow at Brookings — whose 2014 book underscored the importance of choosing to become parents — sounded the alarm on 2022’s Dobbs v. Jackson decision.
4. “You can learn about effective policy from studying other countries,” stated Maldonado. Calling the ANNALS publication a goldmine for policymakers, Gornick enumerated such factors as benefit level, duration and financing as the variables that should be studied.
And yet, in so many ways, the United States isn’t the same as other rich countries. Baker noted that poverty risk factors such as health problems and unemployment disproportionately affect Black and Latino mothers whether they are married or not.
Eric Rodriguez of highlighted the particular nature of race in this country and the living with undocumented parents.
5. There’s more than one kind of child support. Of the 10.5 million single-parent households in the U.S., nearly three-quarters are mother-only. An recommends guaranteeing a modest amount of public support to single-parent households. “Many of the policy dilemmas we saw are common across high-income countries,” said Rutgers University professor Laura Cuesta, one of the paper’s coauthors, lamenting the singular lack of robust support here.
emphasizes the value of social involvement and provision of in-kind support. “Nonresident fathers are more than a check,” said Kearney. “They can be part of the children’s lives.”
The panelists speculated on the likelihood of policy shifts in the coming years. While perceiving political support for many progressive ideas, Doug Besharov (University of Maryland School of Public Policy) said, “The sale hasn’t been made yet.” Taking the long view, Irwin Garfinkel (Columbia University School of Social Work), predicted, “These ideas will become politically feasible at some point, because they’re good policy.”
This story originally published on Early Learning Nation and is now archived on The 74. Learn more here.
Mark Swartz writes about efforts to improve early care and education as well as developments in the U.S. care economy. He lives in Maryland.
