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There is a strong correlation between poverty and single parent households[1 2 3]. However it is not a popular thing to talk about because it can feel like “bla

There is a strong correlation between poverty and single parent households[1 2 3]. However it is not a popular thing to talk about because it can feel like “blaming the victim”. But if we ignore it we can’t have productive conversations about how to solve poverty. [1]https://post.ca.gov/portals/0/post_docs/publications/Building%20a%20Career%20Pipeline%20Documents/safe_harbor.pdf https://post.ca.gov/portals/0/post_docs/publications/Buildin... [2]https://ifstudies.org/blog/less-poverty-less-prison-more-college-what-two-parents-mean-for-black-and-white-children https://ifstudies.org/blog/less-poverty-less-prison-more-col... [3]https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jul/04/half-of-all-children-in-lone-parent-families-are-in-relative-poverty https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jul/04/half-of-all...

bryanlarsen 4y ago
But is the correlation cause or effect? AFAICT, there is strong evidence that poverty is a leading cause of single parent households.
- kevviiinn 4y ago
  This is why it's important to remember that correlation != causation
- ryandrake 4y ago
  How does poverty cause someone to become a parent, and then cause the other parent to leave? Not disagreeing, but I've never been in abject poverty so I can't really understand how the line goes from one to the other.
  - diordiderot 4y ago
    Poor people are more likely to make poor choices like unprotected sex, etc and more likely to be religious (no abortion, be fruitful)
  - sethrin 4y ago
    Money stress does terrible things to even the best relationships. It doesn't even have to be abject poverty. Most of the people in the US would have a hard time dealing with an unexpected $500-1000 expense[0]. Which of course is a fantastically plausible outcome from almost any kind of medical issue -- nearly 2/3rds of bankruptcies are because of medical debt[1]. What choices do you make when your partner's difficulties make it so that you can't afford to eat? How long do you keep your kids in a situation where Famine stalks them, hollow-cheeked? [0] https://www.bankrate.com/banking/savings/emergency-savings-report/ https://www.bankrate.com/banking/savings/emergency-savings-r... [1] https://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-93430900525-7/fulltext https://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-93430900525-7/fulltext
  - dfxm12 4y ago
    In the larger context of the article and how the government is spending money meant for the impoverished: Arizona has used welfare money to pay for abstinence-only sex education. Pennsylvania diverted TANF funds to anti-abortion crisis-pregnancy centers. Simply put, the impoverished just don't have access to resources that others do, including the ability to take off from work and travel somewhere to get an abortion, if needed. Add to that the poverty to prison pipeline and it's clear that it's really a systemic issue.
- celeritascelery 4y ago
  It's really a vicious cycle. children raised in a single parent household have worse outcomes on almost every metric when they become adults. That includes their own likelihood of becoming single parents and living in poverty, Essentially repeating the cycle. Interestingly there has been a lot of research on the "Success Sequence"[1]. This is 3 steps for people living in developed countries to break out of this cycle: 1. Finish high school. 2. Get a full-time job once you finish school. 3. Get married before you have children. To quote the studies, "97% of people who follow these steps do not live in poverty. In contrast, 76% of those that did not adhere to any of these norms were below the poverty line." [1] https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/report/success-sequence-synthesis-literature https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/report/success-sequence-synthes...
- simonsarris 4y ago
  That doesn't remotely pass the sniff test unless you also think poverty has dramatically increased in the US since the 1950's, when the opposite has happened. We're talking about single parent households skyrocketing during 8 decades of reduced poverty. If poverty were a leading cause, then there must be some other truly enormous even-more-leading cause that's counteracting the reduction in poverty since then.
  - bryanlarsen 4y ago
    If you change your start date your sniff test up a few decades then the sniff test passes. The number of single parent households has dropped and the number of single teen mothers has dropped dramatically in the past couple of decades and it is visible in the child poverty statistics.

bryanlarsen 4y ago

But is the correlation cause or effect? AFAICT, there is strong evidence that poverty is a leading cause of single parent households.

kevviiinn 4y ago
This is why it's important to remember that correlation != causation
ryandrake 4y ago
How does poverty cause someone to become a parent, and then cause the other parent to leave? Not disagreeing, but I've never been in abject poverty so I can't really understand how the line goes from one to the other.
- diordiderot 4y ago
  Poor people are more likely to make poor choices like unprotected sex, etc and more likely to be religious (no abortion, be fruitful)
- sethrin 4y ago
  Money stress does terrible things to even the best relationships. It doesn't even have to be abject poverty. Most of the people in the US would have a hard time dealing with an unexpected $500-1000 expense[0]. Which of course is a fantastically plausible outcome from almost any kind of medical issue -- nearly 2/3rds of bankruptcies are because of medical debt[1]. What choices do you make when your partner's difficulties make it so that you can't afford to eat? How long do you keep your kids in a situation where Famine stalks them, hollow-cheeked? [0] https://www.bankrate.com/banking/savings/emergency-savings-report/ https://www.bankrate.com/banking/savings/emergency-savings-r... [1] https://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-93430900525-7/fulltext https://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-93430900525-7/fulltext
- dfxm12 4y ago
  In the larger context of the article and how the government is spending money meant for the impoverished: Arizona has used welfare money to pay for abstinence-only sex education. Pennsylvania diverted TANF funds to anti-abortion crisis-pregnancy centers. Simply put, the impoverished just don't have access to resources that others do, including the ability to take off from work and travel somewhere to get an abortion, if needed. Add to that the poverty to prison pipeline and it's clear that it's really a systemic issue.
celeritascelery 4y ago
It's really a vicious cycle. children raised in a single parent household have worse outcomes on almost every metric when they become adults. That includes their own likelihood of becoming single parents and living in poverty, Essentially repeating the cycle. Interestingly there has been a lot of research on the "Success Sequence"[1]. This is 3 steps for people living in developed countries to break out of this cycle: 1. Finish high school. 2. Get a full-time job once you finish school. 3. Get married before you have children. To quote the studies, "97% of people who follow these steps do not live in poverty. In contrast, 76% of those that did not adhere to any of these norms were below the poverty line." [1] https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/report/success-sequence-synthesis-literature https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/report/success-sequence-synthes...
simonsarris 4y ago
That doesn't remotely pass the sniff test unless you also think poverty has dramatically increased in the US since the 1950's, when the opposite has happened. We're talking about single parent households skyrocketing during 8 decades of reduced poverty. If poverty were a leading cause, then there must be some other truly enormous even-more-leading cause that's counteracting the reduction in poverty since then.
- bryanlarsen 4y ago
  If you change your start date your sniff test up a few decades then the sniff test passes. The number of single parent households has dropped and the number of single teen mothers has dropped dramatically in the past couple of decades and it is visible in the child poverty statistics.