Analyze the Evolution of the Black Family Unit in America
This brief is the first in a series examining timely topics that are relevant to Black families and children in the United states of america. It provides a brief summary of contempo data and historical context on family structure, employment and income, and geography for Blackness people with young children in the United States. The second brief sheds light on the role of federal policies in creating, maintaining, and addressing these structural inequities, with a specific focus on access to early care and education for Black families. The tertiary brief uses national, country, and local data to examine housing admission and other available supports for Black families, peculiarly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Blackness Americans' social standing in the Us has been shaped by a long history of racism in laws, policies, and practices that has congenital racist institutions and created and exacerbated inequality. This inequality is built into the infrastructure of our country and has formed the foundation for structural racism—a system that privileges White people and results in intentional disadvantage for Black Americans. These inequalities negatively impact the lives of Black people in a number of ways, including where they alive;[1] the pedagogy they receive;[2] their employment and economic opportunities, access to child care, mental and physical health outcomes, and political standing and power; and the way they are treated in our systems of police force and justice.[iii] Well-nigh every facet of the lives of Blackness people in the United States—both adults and children—is shaped by race. America's racist laws and policies accept long impacted Black Americans, regardless of their socioeconomic status or social continuing.
Population
Blackness Americans currently number nigh 42 million, making up almost 13 pct of the full population in the United States. Equally of 2019, there were ii.68 million Blackness children from birth to historic period 4 in the United states.
Definitions
Due to the pervasive nature of structural racism in the United States, no Black person in America (regardless of their country of origin or ancestry) is allowed from the effects of racism. However, the historical context of an individual's state of origin or identification may vary; this, in turn, has the potential to differentially impact the experiences of Blackness people in the United states.
When referencing Black people throughout this issue brief series, we are referring to individuals who may identify as African American—those who were primarily born in America and are descended from enslaved Africans who survived the trans-Atlantic slave trade—too as the smaller populations of people living in America who may place equally Blackness African or Afro-Caribbean.
Blackness likewise includes individuals who reported being Black alone or in combination with 1 or more races or ethnicities in their responses to the U.S. Census—for example, an private who identifies as Blackness simply, besides as someone who identifies equally Black and White combined or Afro-Latino.
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Family structure
Culturally, Black Americans have long highly valued romantic partnerships, marriage, and children. Nevertheless, institutional and structural barriers oftentimes forbid them from existence able to realize these values,[iv],[5],[6] particularly for those who have low incomes.[7] From 1987 to 2017, the rates of cohabitation among Blackness women ages 19 to 44 increased from 36 per centum to 62 per centum, a rate like to that seen among women from other racial groups. The percentage of Blackness women ever married, notwithstanding, is lower than those who accept cohabitated, at 37 per centum. While in that location are many explanations for lower levels of marriage amongst Blackness women, an overwhelming number of theories focus on economic science—specifically, the earning potential and availability of Black men.[viii],[9] For instance, a lack of employment opportunities for Black men, higher workforce participation amidst Black women than among Black men, a lack of wage parity between Black women and Black men, and the disproportionate representation of Black men (particularly from low-income backgrounds) in the criminal justice organization may outcome in a lack of marriageable partners (e.thousand., men who are perceived by women every bit bonny wedlock prospects considering of their financial or social standing). Importantly, each of these theories—implicitly, and sometimes explicitly—acknowledges the potential function of systemic racism and its bear upon on the marriage rate of Blackness Americans.
Fertility rates for Black women have declined slightly over the past 10 years, from lxx.eight births per 1,000 women in 2008 to 62.0 per i,000 in 2018. Thirty-seven percent of Black women have a outset nascency between historic period 20 and age 24, and birth rates for Black women are highest from ages 25 to 29. This indicates that Black women are having children at the aforementioned ages at which they may be enrolled in school or entering the workforce. At the finish of their childbearing years (ages 15 to 50), Blackness women accept had an average of ii.1 children.
Black children live in a multifariousness of family structures, including married, cohabiting, coparenting, and single-parenting households. Sixty-four percent of Black children live in single-parent families, which may include unmarried parents living with an unmarried partner or with another family. Among Black women ages xv to 50, approximately 60 percent were married or living with an unmarried partner at the time of their first nativity, and roughly 40 percent were neither married nor living with an unmarried partner. The distinction between "single" and unmarried but living with a partner or co-parent is important because it indicates that, despite declines in formal wedlock rates, close to 60 percent of Black fathers (close to 2.five million of 4.2 million) live with their children, a fact often in contrast with public perceptions of Blackness men with children.[10] Inside these households, Black couples generally subscribe to egalitarian and flexible gender roles.[11],[12] While American fathers of all races and ethnicities are by and large more involved with the care of their young children than in decades past, Black fathers—both those who live with and live apart from their children—are more probable than White or Hispanic fathers to feed or eat meals with, bathe, diaper or dress, and play or read to their children on a daily basis.[13]
Extended family and kin networks, a source of social back up and an enduring legacy of African cultures and heritage, have also played a key function in childrearing inside Blackness communities. For example, among children living in a grandparent's home and being cared for primarily by a grandparent, with no parents involved, more one quarter are Blackness. Black grandparents play instrumental roles in childrearing and child care even when children live with their parents.[14] Family and kin networks as well serve as an important buffer for some of the negative impacts of structural and institutional racism experienced by Black families,[15] and often provide emotional back up and instrumental assistance such as assist with transportation and finances.
Employment and income
Equally with family structure, families' economic standing can affect their admission to services and resource that can impact the quality and stability of their relationships with their children, as well equally their children's social-emotional and cognitive development.[16] For instance, higher parental earnings (more mutual in married and/or ii-parent households) have been associated with increased stimulation and response amidst infants and young children; this, in plough, has straight links to brain development. In addition, children from families of middle and lower socioeconomic condition have shown reduced levels of language development from equally early equally 18 months, compared with their more flush peers.[17] Hypotheses suggest that upper-income parents who more often than not have higher levels of education may have more than free time and/or power to invest fourth dimension and resources in their children than middle- and lower-income families.[18] In addition, higher incomes facilitate meliorate access to stable and safe housing, which is a determining factor for a number of child outcomes.
While employment indicators are important, earnings and workforce participation are non a panacea for facilitating Black children's positive development. Black parents participate in the U.S. workforce in high numbers, with 3 in four Black children under age six having all residential parents actively engaged in employment. One-half of Blackness female workers are mothers and more than two thirds of working Black mothers are single. These high rates of workforce participation, however, exercise not interpret to higher earnings. Among all total-time workforce participants in 2018, Black men earned 70.two cents for every dollar earned by White men and Black women earned 61.9 cents; in dissimilarity, White women earned 78.half-dozen cents for every dollar earned by White men. In improver, Black men and women are overrepresented in jobs that have nonstandard hours of employment. Xxx-iv percentage of young Black children living in a single-parent, low-income household—and 70 percent of young Black children living in a ii-parent, low-income household—take parents who piece of work a combination of standard and nonstandard hours. Nineteen pct of Black children living with ii parents had one parent who worked overnight hours, and 6 percent had both parents working overnight hours. Furthermore, 23 percent of those living in a single-parent household had a parent working weekend hours.
In addition to working nonstandard hours, Blackness men and women have less secure employment. Due to difficulties inbound and staying in the labor market, Black men tend to piece of work fewer hours than White and Hispanic men, while Black women work as many hours as White women just experience higher reductions in work hours when the economy slows. In fact, despite loftier rates of workforce participation, Blackness workers had the highest unemployment charge per unit nationally in the first quarter of 2020, at 6.3 percent. This disparity increased every bit the COVID-19 pandemic slowed the economy and led to job loss for thousands of Americans. In turn, greater chore insecurity may outcome in higher rates of poverty for Black Americans. In 2019, the poverty rate for Blackness Americans was eighteen.viii percent, in comparison to 15.7 percent for Hispanics and vii.three percent for both Asians and Whites, and Blackness female-headed households had a poverty rate of 31.7 percent. Furthermore, 34 per centum of Black children from nascency to age 5 alive in households with incomes below the federal poverty line.
In sum, Black Americans take experienced employment-related challenges and structural barriers that go far difficult to maintain acceptable income or accumulate wealth despite active participation in the workforce. Between the last recession (which began in 2007) and 2016, the wealth gap between Black families with children under age 18 and both White and Hispanic families with children nether age 18 widened, despite the income gap remaining relatively constant. In 2019, median household income for Black households was $45,438, compared to $56,113 for Hispanic households, $76,057 for non-Hispanic White households, and $98,174 for Asian households.
Geography
The enduring legacy of slavery, in addition to subsequent discriminatory and racist housing policies, is axiomatic in the geography of where Black people live across the land. During the Bang-up Migration, from 1916 to 1970, millions of Black Americans left the rural Southward for Northern and Western cities to get away from the oppression of racism and White hostility and to search for amend employment opportunities. In the past 30 years, nevertheless, more flush Black Americans have participated in a "opposite migration," moving dorsum to the South to settle in cities with lower costs of living and better economic and educational opportunities. As a result, Black American families and children across all economical strata are currently highly concentrated in the Southern parts of the state and along the E Coast.
The relative size of the population of young Black children in the 50 states and the District of Columbia reflects this trend. In 2019, the Commune of Columbia had the highest percentage of children from nascence to historic period four who were Black, followed by Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, and Maryland. The table beneath shows the 10 states with the highest percentage of Black children in 2019, along with the full number of Blackness children from birth to age 4 in that state.
Table 1: ten states (and DC) with the highest percentage of young children who are Black, 2019
While the 10 states with the largest percentages of Black children from nascence to historic period four were the same in 2019 as in 2010, the size and share of the Blackness child population has shifted within states. For example, the District of Columbia had the highest share of Blackness children in both 2010 and 2019, even though that share dropped from 54 pct to 44 percent. This is part of a broader demographic shift in the Commune, which is no longer majority Black. The number of Blackness children, still, actually increased by eight percent in the same time. The other nine states saw piffling alter in their percent of Black American children, but the number of Black American children decreased in eight states, ranging from 2 percent (Delaware) to 17 per centum (Mississippi). Changes in specific counties, metropolitan areas, and fifty-fifty neighborhoods may or may not exist reflected in state-level changes. For case, while Georgia saw a pocket-sized decrease overall (3%) in the share of Blackness children from birth to age 4, Atlanta's Blackness population grew by more than than 20 percent from 2010 to 2018; in nearby Rockdale Canton, the share of the overall population that is Black grew from 18 percent to 55 per centum in the aforementioned menstruation. In terms of newer migration flows among Black people, areas receiving more young couples or immature single adults may see more changes in the child population in the years that follow.
Similarly, despite big concentrations of Black people living in the Southern and Eastern Us, several states in the Midwest and Westward experienced large increases in the number and share of Black American children from 2010 to 2019, including Washington, Minnesota, Iowa, and Nevada. The table beneath shows the 10 states with the largest growth in the number of Black children from birth to age 4 from 2010 to 2019.
Some states with small populations of Black children (less than 2,000 children in 2010) saw growth of 40 to 42 percent (Montana, Wyoming, and S Dakota), and North Dakota's population of Black children from nascency to historic period 4 more than doubled (181%). While changes in smaller populations volition exist proportionally larger than similar changes in large populations, such changes all the same stand for demographic shifts that—especially if full-bodied in specific communities—may have implications for the infrastructure needed to support the provision of early intendance and education services for Black families.
Table 2: x states with the highest pct change in the population of immature children who are Blackness, 2010-2019
Looking Ahead
Structural racism in the United States has negatively impacted the nation's social and economic fabric and has been especially damaging to Black Americans. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic is disproportionately affecting those who have historically experienced disadvantage in the country, including Black individuals and families. This brief has provided a demographic overview of Black families with immature children in the United states of america, highlighting three areas of consideration for policymakers focused on family unit back up services: family structure, employment and income, and geography. We understand that no unmarried solution can undo the impairment of hundreds of years of racist policies and practices, and that moving forward will crave solutions from a broad range of places, organizations, and individuals across generations and with a variety of lived experiences. The remainder of this series will use family unit construction, employment and income, and geography to shed calorie-free on how policies specific to early care and education and housing can address some of the historical wrongs perpetuated against Black individuals and families.
Additional Readings
Alexander, M., & Due west, C. (2012).The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. The New Press.
Frey, Westward. H. (2019). Six maps that reveal America's expanding racial variety: A pre-2020 census expect at the wide dispersal of the nation'south Hispanic, Asian, and Black populations. Brookings Establishment. https://www.brookings.edu/research/americas-racial-diversity-in-half-dozen-maps/
Hegewisch, A., Phil, K., & Hartmann, H. (2019). The gender wage gap: 2018 earnings differences by race and ethnicity. Institute for Women'southward Policy Research (IWPR). https://iwpr.org/wp-content/ uploads/2019/03/C478_Gender-Wage-Gap-in-2018.pdf.
Katznelson, I. (2005). When affirmative activity was white: An untold history of racial inequality in twentieth-century America. WW Norton & Visitor.
Parolin, Z. (2019). Temporary Aid for Needy Families (TANF) and the Black–White child poverty gap in the United States,Socio-Economical Review. https://doi.org/x.1093/ser/mwz025
Percheski, C., & Gibson-Davis, C. (2020). A penny on the dollar: Racial inequalities in wealth amidst households with children.Socius, vi, 1-17. https://doi.org/x.1177/2378023120916616
Perry, A. (2017). Recognizing bulk-blackness cities, when their existence is being questioned. Brookings Establishment. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2017/10/04/recognizing-majority-blackness
-cities-when-their-existence-is-being-questioned/
Rothstein, R. (2017)The color of law: A forgotten history of how our government segregated America. Liveright Publishing.
Solomon, D., Maxwell, C. & Castro, A. (2019). Systematic inequality and economic opportunity. Center for American Progress. https://www.americanprogress.org/bug/race/reports/2019/08
/07/472910/systematic-inequality-economic-opportunity/
Tucker, K. B. & Mitchell-Kernan, C. (Eds.). (1995). The refuse in spousal relationship among African Americans: Causes, consequences, and policy implications. Russell Sage Foundation.
Western, B. & Wildeman, C. (2009). The Black family and mass incarceration. The Register of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 621(ane), 221-242. doi: ten.1177/0002716208324850
Yeung, Westward. J., Linver, M. R., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2002). How coin matters for young children's development: Parental investment and family processes. Child Development, 73(6), 1861-1879.
Footnotes
[ane] Rothstein, R. (2017)The color of law: A forgotten history of how our regime segregated America. Liveright Publishing.
[3] Alexander, M. (2010). The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. The New Press.
[4] Drake, South. C. & Cayton, H. R. (1945). Black urban center: A study of negro life in a northern city. University of Chicago Printing.
[five] Franklin, D. 50. & James, A. D. (1997). Ensuring inequality: The structural transformation of the African-American family. Oxford University Printing.
[6] Tucker, M. B. & Mitchell-Kernan, C. (Eds.). (1995). The pass up in marriage amongst African Americans: Causes, consequences, and policy implications. Russell Sage Foundation.
[7] Edin, Chiliad. & Kefalas, Chiliad. (2011). Promises I can go on: Why poor women put motherhood before marriage. University of California Press.
[8] Wilson, West. J. (1987). The truly disadvantaged: The inner city, the underclass, and public policy. The Academy of Chicago Press.
[nine] Darity, W. A. & Myers, Due south. 50. (1995). Family structure and the marginalization of Black men: Policy implications. In Tucker, B. Chiliad. & Mitchell-Kernan, C. (Eds.), The reject of marriage among African Americans: Causes, consequences, and policy implications (pp. 263-308). Russell Sage Foundation.
[x] Coles, R., & Greenish, C. (Eds.). (2010). The myth of the missing Black father. New York: Columbia University Press. doi:10.7312/cole14370
[11] Boyd-Franklin, North. (2006). Black families in therapy: Understanding the African American feel. Guilford Press.
[12] Pinderhughes, East. B. (2002). African American spousal relationship in the 20th century. Family Process, 41(two), 269-282.
[13] Jones, J. & Mosher, Westward. D. (2013). Fathers' involvement with their children: United States, 2006-2010. National Center for Wellness Statistics. https://world wide web.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr071.pdf
[fourteen] Taylor, R.J., Hernandez E., Nicklett, Eastward.J., Taylor, H.O., & Chatters, 50.M. (2014). Informal social support networks of African American, Latino, Asian American, and Native American older adults. In Whitfield, K.E., Baker, T.A. (Eds).Handbook of minority crumbling (pp.417-434). Springer.
[sixteen] Shonkoff, J. P. & Phillips, D. A. (Eds.). (2000). From neurons to neighborhoods: The science of early childhood development. National Academies Press.
[17] Hart, B., & T.R. Risley (1995). Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of young American children. Paul H Brookes Publishing.
[18] Kaushal, N., Magnuson, K., Waldfogel, J. (2011). How is family income related to investments in children'south learning? In Duncan, M.R., & Duncan G. (Eds.) Whither opportunity: Rising inequality, schools, and children's life chances (pp. 187-206). Russell Sage Foundation.
Source: https://www.childtrends.org/publications/family-economic-and-geographic-characteristics-of-black-families-with-children
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