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Single-parent households increasingly common, latest Ohio census data show
By Bill Bush and Rita Price
Thursday, May 12, 2011

More kids in Ohio are living with a single parent than a decade ago, and the number living with an unmarried dad has surged as well, census data released today show.

The number of households with children headed by single men rose almost 22 percent from 2000 to 2010, while the number of married couples raising kids continued to decline.

“The American family has been changing for a long time,” said Anastasia Snyder, an Ohio State University professor who studies family structure. “This is a trend, and I just don’t see it turning around.”

In 2000, married couples led almost 71 percent of the Ohio households with kids. By 2010, that number had dropped to just under 65 percent.

More single-parent homes could be one reason why the total number of households in Ohio rose by 3.5 percent - to 4.6 million - while the overall population grew only 1.6 percent, to 11.5 million residents. Nancy Reger, a demographer with the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, said that household growth is connected to average family size, “and divorces are probably a big part of things,” she said.

Also, the number of unmarried partners - with kids or without - living with a head of a household rose 36 percent statewide. And in part because central Ohio is growing, the number of such pairings here shot up 46 percent, to about 53,400. As a portion of the state’s population, though, this group makes up less than 3 percent of all residents.

While the overwhelming majority of Americans marry at some point in their lives, they don’t necessarily see parenthood as a reason to tie the knot, experts say.

“Some of the newer family-formation trends are cause for concern,” Snyder said. “These trends have not been good for children in many respects.”

Single-parent households, especially those headed by women, are much more likely to be poor. Single dads do better economically, and they also are more likely to have another helpful adult living with them - a girlfriend, mother or other relative, Snyder said.

The census data released today don’t include information on income or poverty.

Despite growing rapidly as a group, homes headed by single dads statewide still represent the minority of the households with kids: about 8 percent of the total. Those headed by single moms make up almost 27 percent.

“That’s a big percentage of moms that are carrying that,” Reger said. But “probably, dads are more involved in their families, now more than ever. It used to be when a family split up, moms got the kids.”

Brian Sturgill, a single father with four minor children, doesn’t run into many men whose lives look similar.

The West Side resident works all day as an attendant at a Downtown parking lot, then picks up his children, cooks dinner and tends to homework and other activities.

“It’s a struggle,” he said.

But Sturgill wants to get it right. He learned a while ago that one of the best ways to keep control and to communicate was to eat dinner together. And it’s mandatory that the family sits around the table and never in front of a television.

“When I got custody of the kids, I took a parenting class - a voluntary one,” he said. “I didn’t know how to do it all, and I wanted to learn.”

Still, he sometimes longs for a successful marriage, or at least a partner to share the load.

“My parents were together 50 years,” said Sturgill, 46. “It would be nice to have someone - someone my age - to talk to.”

In central Ohio, Franklin County had the lowest percentage of households with kids headed by married couples: 60.5 percent. Delaware County had the highest percentage, at 83.6 percent.

Pickaway County had the highest percentage of households with children headed by single dads: 9.7 percent. Delaware County had the lowest, at 5 percent.

Glenn Harris, director of the African American Male Initiative at the Columbus Urban League, said he often sees success stories behind the numbers. Although marriage rates are low, Harris said, he works with growing numbers of men who actively care for their children or seek outright custody.

“It’s been a great joy for me working in our community to see that,” he said.

Snyder said it’s difficult to ponder what society and government should do about the trends. “What should the policies be?” she said.

Promoting marriage, birth-control policies and support for single parents are all points of discussion.

Snyder also said that it’s important to look at long-term data on households, “because the census is a snapshot of the population. We really need panel data to explain what happens over time.”

Sturgill can’t say what his household demographic might look like by the time the next census rolls around, in 2020.

“It’s interesting when I go home,” he said, laughing. “But we’re happy. We have what matters. We’re family.”

Read it at the Columbus Dispatch


 
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