Poverty, Single-Parent Households, and Youth At-Risk Behavior: An Empirical Study

Abstract

This is a study of the relationship between supportive family attributes for an eighth grade cohort and their twelfth grade involvement in drug and/or alcohol use, and sexual activity, or, as it is called, behavior. The rise in the number of children living in official poverty and the increase in the number of children living in families headed by a single parent have led some to assume that this situation has caused an increase in at-risk behavior by youth; this paper tests that assumption. First cited are studies from the literature that point to a significant decline in the number of two-parent families over the past few decades, an increase in the number of children living in official poverty, and the simultaneous rise in drug and/or alcohol use and youth sexual activity. Following the background sections is a discussion of the hypotheses to be tested; study results, analysis and discussion follow. There is a position held by policymakers and others that a vicious cycle exists between at-risk behavior and poverty, that youth at-risk behavior begets poverty, and poverty begets at-risk behavior. At the center of all this is the question of family structure and how it is both a cause and an effect of changes in youth at-risk behavior and poverty. There is little doubt that youth sexual activity and youth drug and alcohol abuse have the power to stunt human development to the detriment of economic outcomes. How many of the changes in youth at-risk behavior are due to poverty and how much due to changes in family structure?

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