Shiono P H, Quinn L S
Future Child. 1994 Spring;4(1):15-28.
The living arrangements of American children have been strongly affected by revolutionary social changes in the past 30 years. Large decreases in first-marriage rates and an increase in the likelihood of married couples to divorce have resulted in a wide diversity of living arrangements for children. In spite of increasing divorce rates, in 1990, the vast majority (71%) of the 64 million American children lived in two-parent households, and most (58%) lived with their biological parents. Since the 1970s, however, there has been a large increase in the proportion of children living with single or divorced mothers. Today, 7.3% (4.7 million) of children live with an unmarried parent, 9.1% (5.9 million) live with a divorced parent, and 7.4% (4.8 million) live with a separated or widowed parent. In each year since the 1970s, more than one million children were affected by divorce. The composition of single-parent households has also changed dramatically. The decreasing mortality rates in the past three decades among married individuals have resulted in fewer households headed by widowed parents. However, the decrease in widowed-parent households has been more than replaced by a corresponding increase in households headed by never-married women. Increasing divorce rates have resulted in more children living in stepfamilies and with divorced single mothers. Legal changes in the 1970s have resulted in an increase in the number of children living with divorced fathers. There are large differences in the living arrangements of children by ethnic group. In the past 25 years, there has been an exponential increase in the proportion of African-American children living with never-married mothers. The most common form of living arrangement for African-American children today is one-parent families.
在过去30年里，美国儿童的生活安排受到了革命性社会变革的强烈影响。初婚率大幅下降以及已婚夫妇离婚可能性增加，导致儿童的生活安排多种多样。尽管离婚率不断上升，但在1990年，6400万美国儿童中的绝大多数（71%）生活在双亲家庭中，且大多数（58%）与亲生父母生活在一起。然而，自20世纪70年代以来，与单身或离异母亲生活在一起的儿童比例大幅增加。如今，7.3%（470万）的儿童与未婚父母生活在一起，9.1%（590万）与离异父母生活在一起，7.4%（480万）与分居或丧偶的父母生活在一起。自20世纪70年代以来，每年都有超过100万儿童受到离婚影响。单亲家庭的构成也发生了巨大变化。过去三十年中已婚个体死亡率的下降导致由丧偶父母当家的家庭减少。然而，丧偶父母家庭的减少已被未婚女性当家的家庭相应增加所取代。离婚率上升导致更多儿童生活在再婚家庭和离异单亲母亲家庭中。20世纪70年代的法律变革导致与离异父亲生活在一起的儿童数量增加。不同种族群体儿童的生活安排存在很大差异。在过去25年里，与未婚母亲生活在一起的非裔美国儿童比例呈指数级增长。如今，非裔美国儿童最常见的生活安排形式是单亲家庭。
