The Effects of Race, Space and Marital Status on Poverty

• In Event: Racial and Ethnic Minorities Section Roundtables Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table Eleven: Open Topics on Race and Racism

Abstract

Many of the major sociological studies of the 20th century documented the impact of race and marital status on poverty. In fact, a leading trope of that era was the impact of “female-headed households” on poverty—particularly in the case of black Americans. And while studies of the latter 20th century convincingly demonstrated that poverty causes female-headed households rather than vice versa, the association between the two factors was undeniable. Nevertheless, American society has undergone significant demographic and structural change since the mid-to-late 20th century. In the 21st century, the black population is no longer the largest minority group, the U.S. industrial economy has transitioned from heavy industry to information/services, and technology has narrowed the gap in living standards between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. Accordingly, this study examines the effects of race, ethnicity, and martial status on poverty in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas from 2000-2024. The following are the specific research questions: 1) How do blacks, Latinos, Asians, and whites compare relative to poverty in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan places? 2) How do those groups’ level of poverty compare relative to being married or nonmarried? 3) What are the effects of demographic and social factors on these differences? and 4) How have these relationships changed over the first quarter of the 21st century? The study employs the 2000-2024 Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS), and logistic regression as the multivariate statistical method. The study concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and policy implications of the findings.

Authors

• Hayward Derrick Horton, University at Albany, SUNY

• Melvin E. Thomas, North Carolina State University

• Loren Henderson, University of Maryland-Baltimore County