THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 16, 1995 TAG: 9510160071
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
After two decades of declining numbers, two-parent families are on the rebound, says a Census Bureau report. But, while the number of two-parent families has risen since 1990, the percentage of families headed by a single parent is continuing to rise.
Nearly one-third of all American families with children were headed by a single parent in 1994, according to the survey released today. Those numbers have steadily increased from 13 percent in 1970, to 22 percent in 1980, and 28 percent in 1990; the figure rose to 30.8 percent in 1994.
The survey found sharply higher numbers among black families, where 65 percent of homes with children are today headed by single parents. Among whites, the figure is 25 percent.
``It's not good news. The trend line continues to move in a disturbing direction,'' said William Mattox, vice president for policy at the Family Research Council in Washington.
Two-parent families with children, whose numbers fell steadily by almost 1 million between 1970 and 1990, rose nearly 600,000 between 1990 and 1994. But the percentage of two-parent families fell slightly, to 69.2 percent in 1994 from nearly 72 percent in 1990.
A Census official, recognizing that out-of-wedlock childbirth has become a hot political issue for welfare reformers, cautioned policymakers not to draw sociological conclusions.
``Baby boomers are just getting to that age where they are less likely to be divorced than when they were in their 20s, and more likely to be married with children,'' said Donald Hernandez, head of the Census Bureau's Marriage and Family Branch, which wrote the report. ``The numbers don't mean there's been any shift in the way people are behaving in terms of divorce or out-of-wedlock childbirth.''
Still, children's advocates said the report proved the folly of Republican reforms in Congress.
``This message of continued growth in single-parent families means this is a crazy time for Congress to be cutting child-care systems, a crazy time for them to be shortchanging women who need child support,'' said Deborah Weinstein, a family-income analyst for the Children's Defense Fund.
The liberal Washington group is fighting GOP proposals to deny cash welfare to unwed teenage mothers and charge fees to poor women seeking state help with child-support collection. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
OTHER FINDINGS
From the March 1994 survey of 58,000 households:
In 1994, about 9.9 million single mothers headed households -
compared to 1.6 million single fathers.
Single fathers were twice as common in white families (accounting
for 16 percent of all white single parents) as in black families (8
percent of all black single parents).
Of the 11.4 million single parents, 9 million owned or rented
their home, 1.8 million lived in a relative's home and 650,000 lived
in the home of a non-relative.
The number of families with three or more children at home, which
fell from 10.4 million in 1970 to 6.5 million in 1990, rebounded to
7.1 million in 1994.
KEYWORDS: U.S. CENSUS by CNB