1 / 26

Demographics of Same-Sex Couple Households with Children

Demographics of Same-Sex Couple Households with Children. Kristy M. Krivickas Daphne Lofquist U.S. Census Bureau Fertility & Family Statistics Branch Presented at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America - April, 1, 2011. Goals and Rationale.

lorand
Download Presentation

Demographics of Same-Sex Couple Households with Children

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Demographics of Same-Sex Couple Households with Children Kristy M. Krivickas Daphne LofquistU.S. Census Bureau Fertility & Family Statistics Branch Presented at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America - April, 1, 2011

  2. Goals and Rationale • Examine distribution of multiple categories of children under age 18 in same-sex unmarried and same-sex spousal households • Describe demographic characteristics of households with children • Compare opposite-sex and same-sex couple households • Policy implications • One of first studies using nationally representative data of children in households containing same-sex spouses

  3. Past Research: Children in Opposite-Sex and Same-Sex Households • 2008 American Community Survey data • 415,000 reported same-sex unmarried • 13.9% of male-male and 26.5% of female-female contain children • Increase from Black & colleagues (2000) estimates • Same-sex couples - children from past relationship, rather than children from current relationship (Henehan et al. 2007) • Possibility that same-sex couple households more likely to have a non-related child

  4. Past Research: Repartnering and Children’s Relatedness to the Householder • Rapidity at which and number of times individuals repartner increasing over time (Cherlin 2009) • May lead to high numbers of step and/or combinations of biological and step children • Boundary ambiguity – who is in the family versus who is not • Possible confusion about how each child is related to householder

  5. Focal Hypotheses • Non-related children more likely to be in unmarried partner households rather than in married households • Non-related children greater likelihood of being in same-sex than in opposite-sex households • Exploratory examination of demographic characteristics

  6. Data and Methods • 2009 American Community Survey (ACS) • ACS replaces long-form of 2010 Decennial Census • Largest household survey – approximately 3 million sampled housing units • Internal data files – same-sex reporting status imputation flag

  7. Data and Methods • Analytic Sample • HH that have child 18 years of age or younger • HH that have non-related child 18 years of age or younger • Only couple HH • Analyses • Detail distribution of types of children, both own and non-related children, in multiple households • Describe demographic characteristics of each type of household with children

  8. Conclusions • Partial support for our hypotheses • Same-sex households would be more likely to have only non-related children compared with opposite-sex householders • Non-related children more likely in unmarried households versus married households, regardless of the sex of the partner

  9. Conclusions • Consistent with past research on boundary ambiguity among cohabiting couples • Tentative evidence – legally tenuous households less likely to claim partner’s child as their own child

  10. Conclusions • Only adopted/only step households significantly higher avg. household incomes • Financial and psychological costs • Among adopted/step only households, same-sex couples and married opposite-sex couples similar • Suggests adopted and step children at no greater socio-economic disadvantage • Possible advantage compared to unmarried opposite-sex

  11. Future Research • Who are these non-related children? • “Random” addition to household • More likely belong to partner of householder • What are consequences if a partner’s child is claimed as non-related? • Lower levels of parental support, higher likelihood of dissolution

  12. Future Research • Provide only descriptive, demographic baseline • Need relationship characteristics • Additional partner information

More Related