Children's Family Environment

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The National Survey of America's Families (NSAF) was designed largely to monitor children's family environments during an era of federal policy devolution and change. Children's environments are closely tied to the behaviors and well-being of the adults in their homes, and the environments in which children live affect their well-being (Child Trends 1999). Of the family environment measures in the NSAF, only a few changed between 1997 and 1999 for the population as a whole. There has been progress in meeting two goals of welfare reform: Both the child poverty rate (Zedlewski 2000) and the percentage of children living in single-parent families declined. At the same time, parental aggravation increased slightly nationwide.

Low-income children became less likely to live with a single parent, but other aspects of their family environments did not change. Meanwhile, among higher-income children, the prevalence of high parental aggravation rose while infrequent reading to young children increased between 1997 and 1999.

Overall, the NSAF showed very similar patterns in 1999 and 1997. For both years, children who lived in families with low incomes or with a single parent experienced, on average, much more disadvantaged family environments than did other children.

Why might the quality of children's family environments appear static—or even worsen—given the booming economy and declining rates of poverty and single parenthood? Several possibilities exist: It may take more than two years for changes in the family environment measures examined here to register; the measures may be sensitive only to larger changes in income, family structure, or other societal forces; and improvements in children's family environments in one subgroup of children may offset declines among another. An examination using more detailed background characteristics may be needed to fully understand these patterns.

This Snapshot summarizes findings from the 1999 NSAF on measures of children's family environments (as reported by their parents) for 13 states and for the United States as a whole. It compares the family environments of low-income children (those living below 200 percent of poverty in 1998) with those of higher-income children (those living above 200 percent of poverty). It also compares the family environments of children in single-parent versus two-parent families.¹ Finally, changes that have taken place since 1997 are identified. The measures include:

• family structure (for children ages 0 to 17),
• the frequency with which parents read or tell stories to their young children (for children ages 1 to 5),
• the frequency with which parents take their young children on outings (for children ages 0 to 5),
• parental involvement in volunteering (for children ages 0 to 17),
• parental attendance at religious services (for children ages 0 to 17),
• level of parental aggravation (for children ages 0 to 17), and
• symptoms of poor parental mental health (for children ages 0 to 17).

Notes from this section

1 Throughout the text, children who live with two biological or adoptive parents or who live in a step-family are referred to as living with two parents. Children who live with one biological or adoptive parent are referred to as living in single-parent families. Children living without either biological or adoptive parent are excluded from two-parent versus single-parent comparisons.

Note: The Portable Document Format (PDF) of this report includes all tables and charts.

The nonpartisan Urban Institute publishes studies, reports, and books on timely topics worthy of public consideration. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders.

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