London A S, Elman C
Department of Sociology, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242-0001, USA.
Demography. 2001 May;38(2):283-97. doi: 10.1353/dem.2001.0017.
Historical demography documents that mother-only families were more common among African Americans than among Euro-Americans early in the twentieth century. We find direct evidence that African American males in both first and higher-order marriages were more likely to have (re)married previously married women and were more likely to have (re)married women with children. This racial difference in (re)marital partner choice reduced the racial difference in the prevalence of mother-only families such that, in the absence of such remarriage choices, the prevalence of mother-only families in the turn-of-the-century African American population would have been even higher than has been reported. Remarriage in this period countered the various demographic, economic, cultural, and social-institutional forces that disproportionately destabilized African American marriages; it must be taken into account more fully by analysts concerned with racial differences in family structure.
历史人口统计学资料表明，在20世纪初，单亲家庭在非裔美国人中比在欧裔美国人中更为常见。我们发现直接证据表明，初婚和再婚的非裔美国男性更有可能与曾结过婚的女性结婚，并且更有可能与有孩子的女性结婚。这种再婚伴侣选择上的种族差异缩小了单亲家庭患病率上的种族差异，以至于在没有这种再婚选择的情况下，世纪之交非裔美国人中单亲家庭的患病率会比所报告的还要高。这一时期的再婚抵消了各种使非裔美国人婚姻不成比例地不稳定的人口、经济、文化和社会制度力量；关注家庭结构种族差异的分析人士必须更全面地考虑这一点。
