HARD TIMES SPLIT FAMILIES, REPORT SAYS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 15, 1993                   TAG: 9301150177
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium
HARD TIMES SPLIT FAMILIES, REPORT SAYS
Poor parents are nearly twice as likely to break up as those with money, the government reported Thursday in its first study of how financial hard times cause families to dissolve.
One out of seven married couples below the poverty line splits up, compared to one out of 13 couples with higher incomes, the Census Bureau reported in a study that tracked families for two years in the 1980s.
And when a marriage breaks up, three times out of four a mother and her children who were above the poverty line tumble below it, the study found. In 1990, a married couple with two children was considered poor if the family earned less than $13,254 a year.
"This report is a striking reminder of the ways in which strong family values have to include a strong economic foundation for families," said Clifford Johnson, family support director for the Children's Defense Fund. "We've known intuitively for a long time that poverty and other economic problems create a lot of stress for parents."
President-elect Clinton's newly named assistant for domestic policy, Carol Hampton Rasco, said Thursday she hoped the "exquisite beauty of parental love" would mark the relations of all children to with their families.
However, she added, families need more than love. "These primary caretakers of these children must be empowered in their ability to be nurturing through economic security, health-care coverage, meaningful education for their children and themselves, as well as other quality, accessible services," Rasco said.
A marital split sends a poor family spiraling further into poverty, as the father's departure slashes income, Johnson said. For the children, it means inadequate nutrition, poor health, learning disabilities and eventual unemployment.
Sandy Green of Chicago was 33 last March when her husband of two years quit coming home. They had made a comfortable life with his pay as a carpenter and hers as a part-time secretary.
When the family split, Sandy and her newborn baby, Joshua, suddenly found themselves trying to live on less than $250 a week.
She had to pay $470 a month in rent. She owed $560 in emergency-room bills, and had no health insurance. "There was no way we could make it," she said.
They were evicted. "We didn't have a place to live," she said. "Our church helped us for awhile.
"When I knew the whole responsibility of raising the baby was on my shoulders, and here it was wintertime, and he needed to be warm and safe and have food - I felt kind of helpless."
The traditional family - mom, dad and kids - has fallen from its central place in American society over the past two decades. In 1970, only one family in 10 was headed by a single parent. By 1990, nearly one family in four was headed by a single parent, usually the mother.
That trend put the "family values" issue at the heart of last year's presidential campaign.
But the Census Bureau study suggested a value that weighs heavily in keeping families together is money in the bank.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB