Household Structure among Welfare Families

Correlates and Consequences

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2588255
AutoresMary Ann Scheirer (autor correspondente)
Ano1983
Volume45
Fascículo4
Páginas761
Data de publicação1983-11-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Marriage and the Family (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0022-2445 • E-ISSN: 1741-3737
EditoraJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/351789
OpenAlexW2025141901
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas8
Referências citadas6

This paper examines multigeneration household structures among recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). The AFDC Recipient Characteristics Surveys for 1975 (31063 cases) and 1977 (27792 cases) provide data on individuals within households as they are related to the youngest child. Households are classified as 1) mother and children alone (60% of families) 2) mother and father or stepfather with children (14%) 3) mother and children with one or more grandparents (10%) 4) mother and children with other adult relatives or nonrelatives (6%) and 5) households with no mother (9%). Black families are more likely to include grandparents and less likely to include fathers or stepfathers than white and Hispanic families. In families with grandparents nearly 2/3 of mothers have never married. Although the formation of multigenerational households may relate to the mothers life cycle stage the greatest majority of AFDC mothers at any age live alone with their children. Teenage AFDC mothers are most likely to live in multigenerational households but by their early 20s are most likely to live alone with 2-3 children. The authors find that mothers aged 24 and under and especially 19 and under living with grandparents are more likely to stay in school than mothers living alone with their children. Living in an extended family other than with grandparents has no effect on education and no household structure effects income. Households with mothers and children living alone have the highest average AFDC monthly payment; households that include grandparents have the lowest. Comparing household types with monthly payments shows that when AFDC payments are too low single mothers and children often must become part of an extended household. The data suggest that welfare families form multigenerational households for economic more than social-psychological reasons. Future research should compare welfare families with low income nonwelfare families to determine if public assistance motivates young mothers to leave their families prematurely examine motivations to complete schooling and examine effects of the multigenerational family on eventual marriage of welfare mothers

Aid to Families with Dependent Children · Developmental psychology · Economics · Grandparent · Single mothers · Single parent · Sociology · Welfare · Welfare reform · Demography · Family Dynamics and Relationships · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving · Psychology