Family Structure and Composition

This brief discusses how immigration policy keeps families apart and presents national data attesting to these family separations. Immigrants are more likely than natives to be married with spouse absent, their households are more likely to be headed by men with no wife present, and foreign-born children are more likely to be in nonchild relationships to the householder than natives. In a subset of foreign-born children with at least one parent in the United States, 21 percent were separated from their mothers and 34 percent from their fathers for 1 year or more.

Zone 126 is a nonprofit neighborhood organization in Queens, New York City that was awarded a Promise Neighborhood planning grant from the US Department of Education in 2011. The Urban Institute developed a neighborhood survey for residents of Astoria Houses, a public housing development in the Zone 126 neighborhood, to support Zone 126's needs assessment and planning process. Zone 126 used results from the survey to inform the initiative’s family and child-centered programming. This report summarizes the methodology and findings of the survey and provides the survey instrument and sources of survey questions.

This evaluation of the Case Management Partnership Initiative (CPMI) found that the program successfully linked high-need families with services designed to prevent truancy. The truancy prevention program, implemented at Anacostia and Ballou High Schools in 2011-2012, links chronically truant ninth graders and their families to social services and case management, and includes weekly interagency case management meetings. While the evaluation found that the program was implemented as intended, it is unclear whether the program's efforts impacted truancy among participants. Nonetheless, CMPI remains a promising platform for additional program experimentation, including possible modifications to timing, eligibility criteria, and program components.

An evaluation of the Truancy Court Diversion Program (TCDP) found that despite significant implementation challenges, parent-child communication and youths' attitudes towards school both improved. A voluntary program for middle school students at risk for chronic truancy, TCDP involves judicially-led sessions that address student attitudes combined with case management and service referrals to address family-level attendance barriers. The evaluation found that families of truant youth had high levels of need and were successfully connected to services. The evaluation suggests that the program should be formalized and better supported through dedicated resources and support from school administration prior to expansion.

Growing up poor strongly predicts poverty and poor adult outcomes. This study explores two primary reasons poverty may persist across generations: risk behavior in adolescence and dropping out of high school. Results suggest that risk behavior and dropping out help perpetuate poor economic outcomes for children from single-parent families but are less important for children who grow up in low-income families. The findings suggest that policies directed at reducing youth risk behavior and dropping out can improve economic outcomes when targeted to youth from single-parent households.

Using data from the Making Connections Cross-site Survey, this brief explores movement into and out of homeownership for families with children in selected low-income neighborhoods. We find that poor families and those with less home equity are more likely to move out of homeownership. With the reduction in home prices in many areas, brought on by the housing crisis, there are increasing opportunities for affordable homeownership. However, we find that two-parent and Hispanic families may be relatively more likely, and blacks and single-parent families relatively less likely, to take advantage of these new chances for homeownership.

Using data from the Making Connections Cross-site Survey, this fact finds that, on average, families would save about $276 per month in mortgage payments with a new five percent interest rate, 30-year mortgage. Lower interest rates both increase housing affordability and allow families to accumulate equity in their homes more quickly. This fact highlights the importance of improving financial literacy, information and education around mortgage pricing, and of helping families build good credit. Families included in the data live in selected low-income neighborhoods in six cities and were surveyed as part of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Making Connections initiative.

Family events, such as a job loss, the onset of health limitations, and a change in family structure, can adversely affect family well-being. The impact of these events may be mitigated if the family holds assets that can be used to maintain consumption. Using the SIPP, this study examines the role of assets in families' economic stability. We find that families in all parts of the income distribution experience material hardship after a negative event. Further, in the aftermath of a negative event, asset-poor families experience more hardship than non-asset-poor families, with assets helping most for low- and middle-income families.

Today, the U.S. Census Bureau announced that the U.S. poverty rate reached 13.2 percent in 2008. Even this significant increase from the 12.5 percent rate in 2007 surely understates the share of Americans struggling to make ends meet today in September 2009.

The 14th annual Fact Book is a comprehensive data source for indicators of child well-being in the District of Columbia. Over 50 data indicators are tracked over time. This publication provides a broad perspective on the status of children and youth in the District. We seek to inform and educate our readers about the issues affecting children and their families in the District. We encourage community residents, policy makers, professionals, and others who work with and/or on behalf of children and families to create conditions that foster the optimal health and development of our children.