Diane K. McLaughlin

Race and the Retreat From Marriage: A Shortage of Marriageable Men?

We provide a search-theoretic model of the transition to first marriage among young [black and white] women in the United States. We measure directly the pool of unmarried men relative to unmarried women in local marriage markets as well as the economic attractiveness of available men for each unmarried woman in the NLSY [National Longitudinal Survey of Youth]....Our event-history analysis evaluates the contextual effects of marriage market conditions while controlling for individual factors like womens employment and value orientations known to affect marital timing.... (EXCERPT)

Income Inequality and Mortality in US Counties: Does Minority Racial Concentration Matter?

UNLABELLED This study examined (1) the relationship between income inequality and mortality among all counties in the contiguous United States to ascertain whether the relationships found for states and metropolitan areas extend to smaller geographic units and (2) the influence of minority racial concentration on the inequality-mortality linkage. METHODS This county-level ecologic analysis used data from the Compressed Mortality Files and the US Census. Weighted least squares regression models of age-, sex-, and race-adjusted county mortality rates were estimated to examine the additive and interactive effects of income inequality and minority racial concentration. RESULTS Higher income inequality at the county level was significantly associated with higher total mortality. Higher minority racial concentration also was significantly related to higher mortality and interacted with income inequality. CONCLUSIONS The relationship between income inequality and mortality is robust for counties in the United States. Minority concentration interacts with income inequality, resulting in higher mortality in counties with low inequality and a high percentage of Blacks than in counties with high inequality and a high percentage of Blacks.

Female‐Headed Families and Poverty in Rural America*

Abstract  Employing data from the 1980, 1990, and 2000 March supplements of the Current Population Surveys, this study examines changing household and family structure in metro and nonmetro areas and corresponding changes in poverty, emphasizing female-headed families with children under age 18. We also pay particular attention to the structure and economic conditions of subfamilies with children during this period. Household and family structure in suburban metro and nonmetro areas were quite similar by 2000. In contrast, families and households in nonmetro and metro central city areas were similar in their high prevalence of poverty. Finally, the risk of female-headed families and subfamilies with children living in poverty is highest for nonmetro residents, and their individual characteristics suppress rather than account for this disadvantage. This pattern persisted across the decades studied, despite economic growth during the 1990s.

Poverty and the marital behavior of young women

DIANE K. McLAuGHLiN The Pennsylvania State University DANIEL.L T. LICHTER The Pennsylvania State University* Marriage provides one route out of poverty and long-term reliance on welfare, yet little is known about the factors that encourage or impede marriage among poor, young women. We use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to examine first marriage transitions for poor young women and young women who are not poor. We find that the latter are more likely to marry than poor women, but poor women who have jobs are more likely to marry than those who do not have jobs. Poor Black women have the same probability of marriage as poor White women, after controlling for differences in economic independence, mate availability, and family culture and living arrangements. The receipt of welfare was not associated with marriage propensity for either poor women or women who are not poor. Lower mate availability and higher average welfare payments in a local area depressed the probability of marriage among poor women but had no influence on the probability of marriage among women who are not poor. Key Words: Afr American women, marriage, poverty, welfare. The rise in extramarital living arrangements and unmarried childbearing has contributed to increases in poverty among women and children. This pattern coincides with the erosion of public support of welfare for poor, single-parent families and raises new questions about the possible unintended consequences of existing welfare programs. Recently passed welfare reform legislation limits the lifetime receipt of welfare and requires poor women to find other means of economic support. Two options are employment and marriage. Recent research suggests that there are many more poor women who will be searching for jobs than there are available jobs (Jensen & Chitose, 1996) and that women who leave welfare for employment are more likely to return to welfare than women who leave welfare for marriage (Harris, 1996). Marriage may be an important way out of chronic poverty and long-term reliance on welfare. Unfortunately, recent studies provide only a limited understanding of the marital experiences of poor women, and even less is known about how economic factors, such as welfare benefits and employment, influence poor womens decisions to marry (Moffitt, 1992). This research addresses that void. Theoretical models of young womens transitions to marriage provide insights into the marriage process (Lichter, McLaughlin, Kephart, & Landry, 1992; Oppenheimer, 1988; South, 1993) but do not provide explicit hypotheses regarding the likelihood that poor women marry, compared with women who are not poor. Theories of economic independence, the local marriage markets, and cultural theories of marriage timing do not provide a clear picture of poor womens propensity to marry. Economic independence theories suggest that as womens education and earnings increase they will be less reliant on marriage for economic support and that women with greater economic independence will delay marriage. The availability of possible spouses and how that influences marriage timing are the basis for marriage market explanations of marital timing. Areas where there is a greater availability of unmarried men, especially men with high levels of education or good jobs, should encourage womens marriage. Finally, cultural explanations of marriage suggest that family background, attitudes toward womens roles, and beliefs about marriage influence womens decisions to marry. These theories provide mixed evidence of whether poor women are more or less likely to marry than women who are not poor. We examine these theories explicitly to evaluate their applicability to poor womens marital behavior. We empirically assess poor womens relative probability of marriage, and we test which theoretical explanations of marriage timing are best suited to poor womens marriage decisions and the marriage decisions of women who are not poor. …

Household Composition and Poverty among Female-Headed Households with Children: Differences by Race and Residence*

We examine race and residential variation in the prevalence of female-headed households with children and how household composition is associated with several key economic well-being outcomes using data from the 2000 5% Public Use Microdata Sample of the U.S. Census. Special attention is paid to cohabiting female-headed households with children and those that are headed by a single grandmother caring for at least one grandchild, because these are becoming more common living arrangements among female-headed households with children. We find that in 2000: (1) cohabiting and grandmother female-headed households with children comprised over one-fourth of all female-headed households with children, (2) household poverty is highest for female-headed households with children that do not have other adult household earners, (3) earned income from other household members lifts many cohabiting and grandparental female-headed households out of poverty, as does retirement and Social Security income for grandmother headed households, and (4) poverty is highest among racial/ethnic minorities and for female-headed households with children in nonmetro compared to central cities and suburban areas. The steady rise in female-headed households and in the number of children living in female-headed households (Casper and Bianchi 2002) has important life course implications for recent cohorts of women and children. About half of all women will experience single motherhood at some point in their lifetimes (Moffitt and Rendall 1995), and a majority of children will live in a female-headed household (Graefe and Lichter 1999). High poverty rates among female headed households with children, when compared with other household types,

Welfare and the Rise in Female-Headed Families

The article provides a bridge between recent marriage market research and studies of welfare incentive effects on U.S. family formation. Estimates from state and county fixed‐effects models indicate significant effects of changing state Aid to Families with Dependent Children, food stamps, and Medicaid expenditure levels on county‐level changes in families headed by unmarried mothers. However, neither changing welfare benefit levels nor declining economic and marital opportunities could account for recent increases in female headship. The results imply that large additional cuts in welfare payment levels would lead to only small reductions in the percentage of female‐headed families with children.

Some Women Marry Young: Transitions to First Marriage in Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Areas.

We examine the extent to which the timing of first marriage differs for metropolitan and nonmetropolitan young women [in the United States. The authors find that]...young nonmetropolitan women marry at a younger age than metropolitan women a difference only partially explained by variations in the attributes of the young women their families and the local marriage market. The effects of receipt of public assistance and local mate availability on the transition to first marriage differ for metropolitan and nonmetropolitan young women. Data are from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth for 1979 and 1986. (EXCERPT)

Family migration and changes in women's earnings: A decomposition analysis

Married women who migrate with their families experience relative earnings losses after migration. In this study, we use data from the 1987 Wave of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to explicitly examine the relative importance of three sources of those losses: labor force participation, hours of labor supplied, and wages. We estimate earnings models with Heckmans sample selection method for each of four years following migration. The results and subsequent coefficient decomposition methods show that labor force exit and a reduction of labor supplied contribute the largest share to the earnings penalty attached to migration for married women. The participation effect, although reduced in size, is significant for three years following migration. The wages of employed married women who migrate appear to be unaffected in any year following migration.

ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEWS AND CASE STUDIES: Marcellus Shale Gas Development and New Boomtown Research: Views of New York and Pennsylvania Residents

Development of unconventional natural gas resources in the Marcellus Shale region of the northeastern United States has progressed rapidly over the last decade. The discourse surrounding such development recalls quarter-century-old debates about positive and negative implications for the well-being of such energy boomtowns. Potential support or opposition relates to trust in the industry and its regulators, perceived knowledge, and perceived impacts. Our research project takes advantage of the opportunity for a natural experiment in comparing these elements between two spatially adjacent sites with contrasting approaches to gas development: in Pennsylvania, drilling of unconventional natural gas reserves has been proceeding for nearly a decade, whereas, at the time of this writing, drilling has not begun in New York. A mail survey of a random sample of New York and Pennsylvania residents within the Marcellus region revealed important differences between sites. New York residents were more opposed to development, characterized the industry in a more negative light, and were more likely to have engaged in various forms of public participation. In contrast, respondents did not differ by state on their perceived level of knowledge, even though gas development is more advanced in Pennsylvania. Potential explanations for these findings are offered, as are implications for understanding newly emerging energy boomtowns.

RESEARCH ARTICLE: Risk Perceptions of Natural Gas Development in the Marcellus Shale

Exploration and extraction of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale have created considerable controversy. At the core of these debates are differing perceptions of the level and types of risks involved with the extraction activities, such as hydraulic fracturing, truck traffic, air emissions, and population growth. Risks described include the potential for human and environmental health implications, as well as community change and economic gain. This article explores the nature of perceived risks associated with Marcellus Shale development by using data from a household survey (N = 1,917) conducted in 2009–10 in Pennsylvania and New York counties located in the core areas of the Marcellus Shale region. The article describes a quantitative measure of risk perceptions. Statistical analyses of the data indicate that trust in institutions responsible for managing the risks associated with development and attitudes related to relationships between people and nature are associated strongly with perceptions of risk. Other associated variables include reported knowledge of environmental, social, and economic impacts, mineral rights ownership, demographic characteristics (gender, income), and state of residence. Implications of these findings are discussed, particularly as related to improving local discourse surrounding Marcellus Shale development.