In 1960, about one in thirteen children in American under age 18 (8.0 percent) lived with his or her mother and no father. In 2006, the fraction was one in four (23.3 percent). Furthermore, 34 percent of children live absent their biological father. Today, half of all children and 80 percent of African American children, can expect to spend at least part of their childhood living apart from their fathers. This dramatic increase in the living arrangements of children is part of a larger demographic revolution that has attracted extensive interest and research. The short story is that in the course of about half a century, many of the foundational patterns of children’s living
arrangements have been altered.In almost all cases, those changes involve growing impermanence for children, fewer adults, greater chances of poverty, and weak inter-generational connections.A profound change in the order of events in the lives of adults is the primary reason. Adults now marry much later than they did forty years ago, and many forgo marriage in favor of informal, usually temporary cohabiting relationships. The result is predictably high rates of births to single women (currently about 34 percent of births), and births to cohabiting couples, some of whom subsequently marry, some of whom separate. Add these to the high divorce rate in America, and the statistics cited above are much more understandable.
