Marriage Not Enough to Guarantee Economic Security

Publication Date: October 2005

Publisher: Columbia University. National Center for Children in Poverty

Author(s): Heather Koball; Ayana Douglas-Hall

Research Area: Social conditions

Keywords: child poverty; low-wage work

Type: Brief

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

Recent public policy initiatives have encouraged low-income parents to marry as a way to become economically stable. But, the data tell a more complex story. Marriage does not guarantee economic security. Not only do the majority of children in single-parent families have parents who were previously married, more than one in four children with married parents is low income.