Illegitimacy is the Major Cause of Child Poverty

The collapse of marriage and subsequent rise in the percentage of children born out of wedlock has scarred the past three decades of the American twentieth century.

Since the mid-1960s, the percentage of children born out of wedlock has quadrupled from 8 percent to 32 percent. That sharp rise in illegitimacy results from a decrease in the number of women of child-bearing age who are married; a decrease in the number of births to married couples; and a substantial increase in the number of births to unmarried women.

The ascendance of illegitimacy, which holds constant across all racial and ethnic groups, has many negative social consequences. Chief among them is the increase in child poverty.

The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), which contains a nationally representative sample of young mothers and their children, chart divides children into four groups:

• Out-of-Wedlock, Never Married (children born out of wedlock whose mothers never married after their birth);

• Out-of-Wedlock, Subsequent Marriage (children born out of wedlock whose mothers married subsequent to their birth);

• Within Wedlock, Divorced (children born to married parents who later divorced);

• Within Wedlock, Marriage Intact (children born to parents who were married at the time of birth and remained married).

Children born out of wedlock to never-married women live in poverty 51 percent of the time. By contrast, children born within a marriage that remains intact are poor 7 percent of the time. Thus, the absence of marriage increases the frequency of child poverty 700 percent. However, marriage after an illegitimate birth is effective, cutting the child poverty rate in half.

From the very beginning, children born outside of marriage have life stacked against them. In addition to poverty, children born into illegitimacy are more likely to experience retarded cognitive development (especially verbal development); lower educational achievement; lower job attainment; increased behavioral and emotional problems; lower impulse control; and retarded social development. Such children are far more likely to engage in sexual activity; have children outside of marriage; be on welfare as adults; and engage in criminal activity.

Robert Rector is a policy analyst for The Heritage Foundation.

For more information ...

Teen Pregnancy Prevention: Welfare Reform's Missing Component. Success in welfare reform requires a decline in teenage pregnancies. (Brookings Institution Policy Note, November 1998, 8 pp.).

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