Thursday, August 15, 2002
Marriage as a solution to get children out of poverty?
A story published today by the Salt Lake Tribune reports that a study conducted by the Heritage Foundation reports that picking the right husband rather than earning a high school or college diploma is a mother's fastest track to getting her children out of poverty.
The foundation study, released weeks before Congress votes on welfare laws, says President Bush is correct in emphasizing marriage in his reform proposals.
"Maternal education without marriage is relatively ineffective in reducing child poverty," wrote researchers Robert Rector and Kirk Johnson. "Poverty levels of children raised by never-married mothers remain high even if the mother has a high school or college degree."
Children raised by never-married mothers are nine times more likely to live in poverty than children raised by two parents in an intact marriage, the study found. Nearly 80 percent of long-term poverty occurs in broken homes or homes in which parents never married.
The Heritage study concluded that although maternal education has a role in reducing child poverty, it is not "nearly as effective as marriage." The foundation used for its study information from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The survey, funded through the U.S. Department of Labor, is a national representative sample of people between the ages of 14 and 22, collected from 1979 to 2000.
Still, marriage is critical because it plays a role in educational attainment of future generations, according to the study. Children living with a single mother are far less likely to be in school at age 17 than those who live in two-parent families, even after the educational level of their mothers is considered.
Federal welfare reform laws enacted in 1996 are up for congressional reauthorization next month.
The Bush administration is urging additional measures to encourage people to get or stay married, and an increased emphasis on sexual abstinence. Bush also is asking for an annual allocation of $300 million through Temporary Assistance for Needy Families to fund programs aimed at strengthening healthy marriages.
