Over recent decades, the landscape of family composition within the United States has undergone significant transformation, showcasing greater diversity in Family Structures. Today, children experience a wide array of family arrangements, varying based on the number of parents (ranging from two-parent to single-parent households), the parental figures involved (biological, step-parents), and the nature of the relationships between these parents (marital versus cohabiting). Furthermore, some children live outside of parental care, residing with grandparents or other guardians.
Research consistently highlights a link between family structure and child outcomes, although it’s important to note that the differences in child well-being across various family structures are often subtle. Family structure serves as an indicator of a child’s access to crucial parental, economic, and social resources, which subsequently play a significant role in shaping their overall well-being. Studies also suggest that certain family forms, such as cohabitation, may lack legal recognition, potentially leading to reduced formal and informal social support networks for these families. This lack of support could contribute to some of the observed variations in children’s outcomes depending on their family structure. For instance, parents in married stepfamilies, cohabiting biological families, and cohabiting stepfamilies exhibit a lower tendency to combine their incomes compared to married biological families. However, access to a cohabiting partner’s income could significantly alleviate poverty for many children living in cohabiting family structures.
Much of the existing research on children’s family structure often overlooks critical nuances and the complex intersections between parental types and relationship statuses. Instead, studies frequently categorize families into broad categories, such as married, cohabiting, and single-parent families, sometimes further distinguishing between two biological parent and stepparent families. A deeper examination of family structure reveals a spectrum of diverse family configurations, particularly among children in low-income households, which has important implications for their well-being. Programs designed to support children and families should acknowledge this diversity when making decisions about service delivery, program design, and ensuring inclusivity for all family types.
This article aims to illustrate the variations in family structure among children living at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty line, often referred to as “families with low incomes.” These families are frequently the recipients of various human and social service programs in the United States. Drawing upon data from the 2022 Annual Social and Economic Supplement Current Population Survey from IPUMS (CPS-ASEC), we will delve into family diversity by analyzing family type, parent type, and union type (definitions provided in Box 1 in the original article, though not included here for brevity as per instructions). We will explore this diversity for all children in low-income families, and also separately for children across three key developmental stages: birth to age 5, ages 6 to 11, and ages 12 to 17.
