I use a new data source, the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, to trace race differences in family structure between 1880 and 1980. Analysis confirms recent findings that the high incidence among African-Americans of single parenthood and children residing without their parents is not a recent phenomenon. From 1880 through 1960, black children were two to three times more likely to reside without one or both parents than were white children. In recent years, however, the race differential in parental absence has grown. Also, blacks have had a consistently higher percentage of extended households than have whites, but until 1940 this was the result of single parenthood and parentlessness among children: Extended households were more common among whites once the effects of absent parents were controlled. T wo distinctive features of African-American family structure are well known: Blacks are far more likely than whites to become single parents and to reside in extended families. The theories offered to explain these differences are diverse and have generated heated debates. I attempt here to narrow the field of potential explanations for race differences in family structure by presenting a concise and detailed description of changes in black family structure from 1880 to 1980. Since the turn of the century, social theorists have argued that slavery resulted in disorganization and instability in black families (DuBois 1899, 1909; Elkins 1963; Frazier 1932, 1939; Myrdal 1944). This interpretation culminated with Moynihan's (1965) report, which concluded that the "pathological" nature of black communities could be traced to the deterioration of black family life. The numerous arguments against the Moynihan report can be divided into two broad cat

/pdf/the-origins-of-african-american-family-structure-1fgx3lvmbt.pdf

The origins of African-American family structure

In the mid-nineteenth century, almost 70 percent of persons age 65 or older resided with their adult children; by the end of the twentieth century, fewer than 15 percent did so. Many scholars have argued that the simplification of the living arrangements of the aged resulted primarily from an increase in their resources, which enabled increasing numbers of elders to afford independent living. This article supports a different interpretation: the evidence suggests that the decline of coresidence between generations had less to do with the growing affluence of the aged than with the increasing opportunities of the younger generation. Using data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS), I examine long-run trends in the characteristics of both the older and the younger generations to gain insight into changing motivations for coresidence. In particular, I investigate headship patterns, occupational status, income, and spatial coresidence patterns. I also reassess the potential impact of the Social Security program. I conclude that the decline of intergenerational coresidence resulted mainly from increasing opportunities for the young and declining parental control over their children.

The Decline of Intergenerational Coresidence in the United States, 1850 to 2000:

THE FINAL THIRD of the twentieth century witnessed remarkable changes in patterns of family formation within most Western countries. During the two decades that followed World War II, marriage and childbearing occurred early in adulthood and were tightly linked. Then, beginning in the late 1960s in some countries and spreading to many others over the next few decades, the average age at first marriage increased as growing proportions of couples cohabited either as a prelude or an alternative to marriage (Bumpass and Sweet 1989b; Cherlin 1992; Casper and Cohen 2000; Kiernan 2000; Prinz 1995; Raley 2000; Smock 2000). Accompanying these changes in marriage practices were large increases in the prevalence of nonmarital childbearing (Sardon 2000; Ventura and Bachrach 2000), especially conspicuous in the face of rapid declines in marital fertility (Smith, Morgan, and KoropeckyjCox 1996). Labeled by van de Kaa (1987) as the “second demographic transition,” this multifaceted departure from the ordered sequence of marriage and childbearing has created challenges for researchers attempting to describe contemporary patterns of family formation with precision. The nonmarital fertility ratio (NMFR), perhaps the most closely watched indicator of changes in family structure, has become an increasingly blunt instrument in light of the share of nonmarital fertility accounted for by parental cohabitation. Moreover, most fertility studies cannot easily determine the number of children women have had by different partners (much less the number of childbearing partners that men have had). Different family forms are often confused in public rhetoric and sometimes even by those researchers who use marriage as a proxy for a nuclear household or nonmarriage as a proxy for single parenthood.

/pdf/shifting-childrearing-to-single-mothers-results-from-17-3ybctgoalm.pdf

Shifting Childrearing to Single Mothers: Results from 17 Western Countries

A sizable literature suggests that coresidence of elderly persons with their children is on the decline in most developing countries. These studies draw on a long tradition of theories that postulate an inverse association between household complexity and economic development. Our analysis of this topic uses new data and measures to assess changes in intergenerational coresidence in 15 developing countries.

We have three main objectives. First, we measure trends in intergenerational coresidence in developing countries from the perspective of both the younger generation and the older generation. Second, we assess trends in intergenerational coresidence by household headship patterns. Finally, we conduct multivariate analyses to control for changes in population composition and to assess the relationship between intergenerational coresidence and economic development.

The results indicate no clear trends in intergenerational coresidence over the past several decades. Some countries experienced modest increases in coresidence; other countries had modest declines. Even more intriguing, when we focus on intergenerational families headed by the older generation—the family configuration most closely associated with traditional stem-family and joint-family systems—we find significant increases in all but two of the countries examined. This suggests that traditional family forms are stable or increasing across much of the developing world. Moreover, multivariate analyses reveal that key measures of economic development are positively associated with intergenerational families headed by the older generation.

/pdf/intergenerational-coresidence-in-developing-countries-4ydxggeasy.pdf

Intergenerational Coresidence in Developing Countries.

In most household surveys, headship is not defined by objective criteria but is self-identified by respondents The first part of this article examines whether self-reported heads in South Africa are those household members in whom more control over decision-making is vested Although the head is typically found to be the oldest household member, there is also a strong relationship between headship and the highest income-earner in the household Furthermore, heads have final say over decisions even when they do not earn the most income This is the case particularly in households headed by women The second part of the article evaluates whether the gender of the head provides a useful marker for distinguishing between household types and their access to resources Female- and male-headed households are not homogeneous groupings, and male-headed households are not equally advantaged However, female-headed households in South Africa on average contain fewer income-earners, whose income is also lower, than 

Who are the heads of household, what do they do, and is the concept of headship useful? An analysis of headship in South Africa

U.S. census officials in the 1970s changed the label for the person listed first in a household from head to householder. This essay places this shift in terminology into historical perspective by examining the meanings of family concepts held by census-takers and by the Americans they enumerated. Even in the traditional era of the family roughly before 1800 household headship was more a consequence of other attributes than an independent source of status or power. Both then and in the modern period that followed the implications of being a head or one of the heads of a household depended on the context. While a more individualistic notion of the family has developed there is still considerable continuity in the conceptions of the family. (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA) (EXCERPT)

The meanings of family and household: change and continuity in the mirror of the American census.

Demographic Behavior in the Past: A Study of Fourteen German Village Populations in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.

Revolutions in Americans' Lives: A Demographic Perspective on the History of Americans, Their Families, and Their Society.

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The meanings of family and household: change and continuity in the mirror of the American census.

Demographic Behavior in the Past: A Study of Fourteen German Village Populations in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.

Revolutions in Americans' Lives: A Demographic Perspective on the History of Americans, Their Families, and Their Society.