For many blacks, family tree long splintered Study suggests a pattern born of cultural differences
By Margaret L. Usdansky
Mon., Jan. 17, 1994
FINAL EDITION
Section: NEWS
Page 7A
 

The large number of black children growing up in single- parent families is widely viewed as a recent phenomenon, and welfare programs often get blamed for the trend.

But a new study of 19th- and early 20th-century Censuses says the pattern isn't new:

Since the 1880s, black children have been two to three times as likely as white children to live without one or both parents.

"Single parenthood among blacks has nothing to do with welfare," says the author of the study, University of Minnesota historian Steven Ruggles. "If you want to find the roots of the black family pattern, you have to go back further."

Ruggles' findings are sure to be controversial. And they will probably become fodder in the fight over welfare reform, especially proposals to limit payments to single parents in order to reduce the welfare rolls.

Ruggles' article, "The Origins of African-American Family Structure," is slated to appear in next month's American Sociological Review.

In it, he argues that differences in black and white family structure have little to do with welfare or recent economic changes that have created a scarcity of jobs for black men. The explanations, Ruggles says, aren't economic, but cultural. They stem either from blacks' experience in slavery or different values passed down by European and African societies, he says.

Conservative researcher Charles Murray, who wants to eliminate welfare entirely, disagrees. "I don't think what he's found is inconsistent at all with my thesis," Murray says. While welfare doesn't explain why single parenthood is greater among blacks, it does explain why single parenthood has recently increased among both races, he says.

Ruggles used the data to show that the share of children under 15 who lived without one or both parents hovered around 30% for blacks between 1880 and 1960, compared with about 10% for whites. The racial gap remained even after taking into account more frequent early deaths among black parents.

After 1960, single parenthood rose rapidly among both races. But black children remained about three times as likely as white children to live without one or both parents.

Ruggles' work is part of larger social science research. Although old Censuses have long been available, computerization of historic Census data at several universities is allowing the first systematic statistical comparisons of American social patterns over time.

Ruggles' finding that black-white family differences are longstanding is supported by other research at the University of Pennsylvania. But his conclusion that the differences have their roots in culture is a hotly debated one.

Cultural explanations for differences between black and white families fell out of favor in the 1960s after Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y. - then an assistant secretary of Labor - issued a report blaming the breakdown of the black family for the "pathological" nature of black communities. The word "cultural" became viewed as a code term to describe - and condemn - family structure among blacks.

"People thought you meant that there was this negative culture blacks had as a result of impoverishment, so basically people didn't want to talk about culture," says University of Pennsylvania sociologist Philip Morgan.

Morgan, who draws conclusions similar to Ruggles' using 1910 Census data, says such work is "making it legitimate to talk about culture again."

While Ruggles suggests cultural explanations for black-white family differences are more plausible than economic ones, Morgan goes further, arguing that black family structure in the USA reflects African traditions that emphasize ties between parents and children over those between husbands and wives.

The idea that black families are "weaker" than white families because they have more single parents is simplistic, Morgan says. `If we could wipe out wealth differences, I think African-American family structure would do just fine."

But many sociologists are wary of cultural explanations. Black family life is influenced by many things, says University of Maryland sociologist Andrew Billingsley. "I would call it something broader - culture and history and economy and racial oppression."

UCLA sociologist Walter Allen says cultural differences can't explain why single parenthood is more common among poor blacks - and poor whites - than among the middle classes.

Using the term "culture" suggests that American blacks were free to choose their families, but under slavery, blacks often had their spouses chosen for them, he says.

"I don't know that you can pick up values from Census data," Allen says.

Tracking single-parent black families

A new study suggests that black children have been more than twice as likely as whites to live in single-parent or no-parent homes since the 1880s or even earlier. The study raises questions about the theory that welfare dependency accounts for the greater frequency of single-parent families among blacks.

Children without one or both parents
Percentage of children, newborns to 14

Blacks Whites
1880 29.9% 12.7%
1910 27.5% 10.3%
1940 27.3% 10.1%
1960 32.3% 8.6%
1980 52.9% 15.9%
1990 63.3% 19.2%

Poor children with single parents
In households headed by women, percentage of children who are poor:

Blacks Whites
1967 72.4% 42.1%
1971 66.6% 44.4%
1976 65.6% 42.7%
1981 67.7% 42.8%
1986 67.1% 46.3%
1990 64.7% 45.9%

Fewer blacks on welfare
The percentage of recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children - the USA's main welfare program - who are black has decreased. The shifts in who the recipients are:

Whites Blacks Hispanics Other 1971 38% 45.8% 13.4% 2.8% 1991 38% 39% 17.4% 5.6%

Children receiving assistance
Children living in households headed by single women are especially likely to receive welfare(1):
All white children 11.8%
All black children 39%
White children in families 35.8%
headed by single women
Black children in families 56.1%
headed by single women
(1) - Children are newborns to 18 years. Welfare in this definition is cash assitance, including AFDC, General Assistance, Supplemental Security Income and means-tested veterans compensation or pensions.