Single-Parent Families and Their Impact on Children: Changing Portrayals in Popular Magazines in the U.S., 1900-1998

Survey data indicate that Americans have become increasingly accepting of single-parent families formed through divorce and non-marital childbearing since 1960 (Thornton 1989; Thornton and Young-DeMarco 2001; Pagnini and Rindfuss 1993). But knowledge of attitudes about single-parent families is limited in terms of both time period and detail. Most data series do not begin until after 1950 (Thornton 1995) and focus narrowly on measuring views of the demographic trends that have fueled the increase in single-parent families rather than on a broader set of attitudes about single-parent families or factors that might influence these attitudes.

Missing Work and Quitting Work: Child Care-Related Employment Problems

Qualitative research points to logistical problems in coordinating child care as a key obstacle to maternal employment for low-income mothers. But quantitative research has largely overlooked this everyday aspect of combining work and family. This article provides quantitative analyses of child-care related employment problems among urban working mothers of infants and asks how social support, the complexity of work and care arrangements and demographic characteristics relate to these problems. We use the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study to estimate logistic regression models of child care failure and missing or quitting work due to care-related problems. Child-care related problems are widespread regardless of race, class or family structure. Mothers with potential backup providers are less likely to experience care-related problems. Mothers who hold more than one job, use more than one care provider or change providers encounter problems more often. Logistical challenges surrounding child care represent a serious obstacle to continued employment for all urban working mothers. Care-related employment problems are more closely associated with the availability of backup care and the complexity of work and care arrangements than with class. These problems merit further study given their potential impact on the gender wage gap.

A ROUTINE JUGGLING ACT: MANAGING CHILD CARE AND EMPLOYMENT

Rising labor force participation among mothers of young children since the 1970s and the passage of strict work requirements for welfare recipients in 1996 have increased scholarly attention to the challenge of balancing the often conflicting demands of work and family. This challenge may be particularly acute for mothers at the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum, who are more likely to be single and more likely to work non-standard hours or weekends than middle- or upper-class mothers.