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Fathers can't be involved if they aren't around. Single motherhood rate in 1950: 5% Single motherhood rate in 2010: 41%
by dinoleif 9y ago
Fathers can't be involved if they aren't around.
Single motherhood rate in 1950: 5%
Single motherhood rate in 2010: 41%
- dragonwriter 9y agoFathers can be around without being married to the mother.
- dinoleif 9y agoFrom a technical perspective sure. From a statistical perspective, the point is a distraction.
- dragonwriter 9y agoIt's not, because unmarried long-term cohabitation has exploded.
- pbhjpbhj 9y agoHow long term? As long as a whole childhood?
- astura 9y agoUnsurprisingly most unmarried parents break up before their kid is an adult. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/terry-gaspard-msw-licsw/living-together-without-marriage_b_6520118.html https://www.huffingtonpost.com/terry-gaspard-msw-licsw/livin... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2004878/Unmarried-parents-6-times-likely-split-time-child-5.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2004878/Unmarried-pa...
- TheAdamAndChe 9y agoYes. Do you really think most unmarried families have both mother and father in the household, though? Regular contact with the father would be a lot more difficult if he's not around except on weekends.
- taeric 9y agoFrom the numbers, back in the 50s kids probably only saw their fathers on the weekends in married families. It is startling to see how much more time fathers get with their kids nowdays.
- dragonwriter 9y agoNo, but I do think an increasing share of full-time two-parent families are unmarried (and married families aren't necessarily living together), and people can get married or begin cohabitation after a child is born, so comparing rates of unwed motherhood is misleading on the magnitude (though consistent with the direction, so far) of any change in the share of children living in single-parent families. There's no reason for an indirect proxy when the actual figure of interest is available: https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2016/cb16-192.html https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2016/cb16-192...
- TheAdamAndChe 9y agoSure, the majority still are together, but the gap is widening. Quoting your link: "During the 1960-2016 period, the percentage of children living with only their mother nearly tripled from 8 to 23 percent and the percentage of children living with only their father increased from 1 to 4 percent." That means the percentage of families living together is declining. Thanks for the link BTW. That data is way more relevant than the marriage statistics in this conversation.
- kwhitefoot 9y ago
- kelukelugames 9y agohttp://www.prb.org/pdf10/single-motherfamilies.pdf http://www.prb.org/pdf10/single-motherfamilies.pdf This paper says it's 24%. Do you have a source for 41? That's too high.
- dinoleif 9y agohttps://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/12/18/the-unbelievable-rise-of-single-motherhood-in-america-over-the-last-50-years https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/12/18/the-u...
- jessriedel 9y agoYour statistic is for the fraction of children living in single-mother households. dinoleif's statistic is for the fraction of babies born to single mothers. So your statistic doesn't count babies who are adopted to two-parent households or whose father later marries the mother (probably plus other factors I'm not considering). I'd say your statistic is more directly relevant to "is there a male adult living in the same house", but dinoleif's for "is the child being raised with a legally committed biological father".
- SamBam 9y agoThere's quite a difference between the 5-41% jump in this first comment, and the 8-23% jump you read in the stats dragonwriter posted. That was precisely dragonwriter's point in the other thread (I can't nest there any further): your unmarried statistic was not particularly germane. Further, your comment don't quite make sense in context. OP shows how the statistics in the article shows fathers have become more involved. You say they can't actually be more involved because they're not around?