abstract: 'Children of single mothers face higher rates of poverty than children in

  two-parent households in practically every affluent democracy. While

  this difference is widely acknowledged, there is little consensus

  regarding the causes of their poverty and, as a result, little consensus

  on the best way to address poverty among these children. Explanations

  include both individual-level, structural, and political explanations in

  four areas: family structure, labor force activity, economic

  performance, and welfare generosity. Previous research, however, tends

  to focus on only one of these four aspects at a time. Using data from

  the Luxembourg Income Study and the Organisation for Economic

  Co-operation and Development, spanning a period of 31 years and 25

  countries, I test each of these four explanations, examining the effects

  on children in single mother households separately (n = 105,814) and

  children in both single mother households and children in two-parent

  households (n = 668,549), conducting random intercept between-within

  logistic regression analysis. Individual-level measures of family

  structure and labor market activity affect child poverty generally in

  the expected way. Taking advantage of the longitudinal data at the

  country level, I focus on within-country change of the structural and

  political variables. Within-country economic performance is not

  significantly related to poverty, but welfare generosity, namely family

  allowances, significantly reduce the odds of poverty. Further, while the

  effects of family allowance spending are similar for children in both

  single mother and two parent households, they are stronger for the

  former than the latter. Yet, the disadvantage of living in a single

  mother household persists.'
affiliation: 'Bostic, A (Corresponding Author), Univ Texas Rio Grande Valley, Dept
  Sociol, One West Univ Blvd BMAIN 1-436, Brownsville, TX 78520 USA.

  Bostic, Amie, Univ Texas Rio Grande Valley, Dept Sociol, One West Univ Blvd BMAIN
  1-436, Brownsville, TX 78520 USA.'
article-number: '59'
author: Bostic, Amie
author-email: amie.bostic@utrgv.edu
author_list:
- family: Bostic
  given: Amie
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1007/s11113-023-09805-y
eissn: 1573-7829
files: []
issn: 0167-5923
journal: POPULATION RESEARCH AND POLICY REVIEW
keywords: Poverty; Child poverty; Single mothers; Social policy; Family allowances
keywords-plus: 'WELFARE-STATE; UNITED-STATES; TRENDS; INCOME; EMPLOYMENT; MULTILEVEL;

  MARRIAGE; WOMEN; DISADVANTAGE; RACE'
language: English
month: AUG
number: '4'
number-of-cited-references: '109'
orcid-numbers: Bostic, Amie/0000-0002-9809-5014
papis_id: ad94406770f7e5522978ecadbecb9ae4
ref: Bostic2023familywork
times-cited: '0'
title: 'Family, Work, Economy, or Social Policy: Examining Poverty Among Children
  of Single Mothers in Affluent Democracies Between 1985 and 2016'
type: Article
unique-id: WOS:001013195800001
usage-count-last-180-days: '1'
usage-count-since-2013: '1'
volume: '42'
web-of-science-categories: Demography
year: '2023'