Search Results
Title: Single Mothers, the Underclass, and Social Policy
Resulting in 1 citation.
| 1. |
McLanahan, Sara S. Garfinkel, Irwin |
|
Single Mothers, the Underclass, and Social Policy Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 501 (January 1989): 92-104. Also: http://ann.sagepub.com/content/501/1/92.abstract Cohort(s): NLSY79 Publisher: Sage Publications Keyword(s): Allowance, Pocket Money; Child Support; Fathers, Absence; Household Composition; Intergenerational Patterns/Transmission; Labor Force Participation; Mothers; Parents, Single; Poverty; Racial Differences; Transfers, Parental; Underclass; Welfare Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher. This paper focuses on the question of whether mother-only families are part of an emerging urban underclass, defined as a population exhibiting weak labor force attachment and residential isolation in neighborhoods with high concentrations of poverty and unemployment. Analysis of national longitudinal survey data (NLSY, PSID) indicates that only a small minority of single mothers fit the description of an underclass--less than 5 percent--but a small and growing minority of black, never-married mothers meet all three criteria. It is argued that welfare programs are necessary, but that too heavy a reliance on welfare can facilitate the growth of an underclass. In contrast, universal programs such as child support assurance, child care, health care, children's allowances, and full employment would discourage such a trend and promote economic independence among single mothers. [Sociological Abstracts, Inc.] |
|
|
Bibliography Citation
McLanahan, Sara S. and Irwin Garfinkel. "Single Mothers, the Underclass, and Social Policy." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 501 (January 1989): 92-104.
|