Family Structure and Wealth Inequality among Families with Children, 1989-2013

• In Event: 293 - Regular Session. Social Stratification and Inequality

Abstract

Family wealth is associated with several measures of child wellbeing and development, including educational attainment. Family structure may be associated with family net worth (wealth) for numerous reasons including family structure differences in family incomes and asset ownership and investment patterns. Wealth inequality and family diversity have both increased substantially in the United States in recent decades, but no previous studies have examined how the associations between wealth and family structure have changed over time for families with children. We use data from 1989 to 2013 from the Survey of Consumer Finance to examine wealth inequality among children. We find that levels of wealth inequality are much greater than of income inequality, that wealth inequality has been increasing over time, and that family structure differences in wealth inequality are large. The median family net worth for never married single mother families was zero for the entire period of study in contrast to a median net worth in the tens of thousands for married parent families. Perhaps surprisingly, we find that family structure differences in net worth have been fairly stable, though very large, between 1989 and 2013.

Authors

• Christine M. Percheski, Northwestern University

• Christina Gibson-Davis