The audacity of traditional child rearing: Marriage is the anti-poverty program
It takes a nuclear family to raise a child.
The United States Census Bureau has released the 2004 for data for what it calls living arrangements of children in America. Just under 60% of children lived with their married biological parents, down from 61.2% in 2001.
Marriage remains a crucially important social institution. The poverty rate for white children living with at least one of their parents the poverty rate was 10.7% in 2004. For black children, that figure was 33.6%. The difference can largely be explained by differences in household compositions.
68.9% of white children lived with married biological parents while 13.1% lived with a single mom. 29.3% of black children lived with their married biological parents while 47.3% lived with a single mom.
58% of Hispanic children lived with their married biological parents, down from 60% in 2001 (but not much different from the 59% in 1996). 25.7% of Hispanic children are below the poverty line and 22.7% of Hispanic children live in single-mom households.
In conclusion, the most pressing need for change in America is to increase the number of children who live with both their biological parents. I’m sure that’s what people who demand change and claim to be the change they want have in mind.
