Recent trends in the inheritance of poverty and family structure

PWP-CCPR-2004-002

Abstract

This study investigates trends in the interdependence of poverty and family structure from
one generation to the next, focusing specifically on mothers and daughters. This aspect of the
mobility process has not been explored, despite widespread concern about the life chances of
children in poor single-parent families and dramatic changes in the distributions of poverty
and family structure in recent decades. We examine origin-by-destination status along the
two dimensions of poverty and family structure, using rich panel data and loglinear models
to parse out the associations between poverty and family structure within and across generations. Our results show that the intergenerational associations between poverty and family structure are strong, but operate through largely independent pathways. Net of the correlation between poverty and family structure within a generation, the intergenerational transmission of poverty is significantly stronger than the intergenerational transmission of family structure, and neither childhood poverty nor family structure affects the other in adulthood. Finally, despite important changes in the distributions of poverty and family structure, we find no evidence of change in the processes of intergenerational inheritance over time.