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Single Mothers’ Co-residential Unions and Changes in Financial Security

Sat, August 11, 10:30 to 11:30am, Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, Floor: Level 5, Salon G

Abstract

This paper tracks mothers’ income/poverty and material hardship over the nine years following an unmarried birth to study changes in mothers’ financial situations when they move in with a romantic partner.* I compare mothers who move in with their children’s biological fathers, those who move in with new partners, and those who remain single, also taking into account whether mothers move in to cohabiting or marital relationships, and whether the findings differ by maternal education. Although most mothers benefit in terms of income-based measures from moving in with partners, this increased income is often not sufficient to reduce mothers’ experiences of material hardship. Mothers with a high school education or less and those who marry their child’s biological father see especially large increases in income-based measures of financial well-being. Partners’ economic attributes do not predict which mothers who move in with partners see the largest improvements in financial well-being.

*The 15-year data from the survey I use for my analyses (the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study) are scheduled to be publicly released later this month. I plan to incorporate this new wave of data into these analyses before the ASA meeting.

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