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Title: Residential Segregation and African American Single Motherhood, 1940-1990

Citation Type: Conference Paper

Publication Year: 2003

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Abstract: Theorists have cited residential segregation as a potentially important cause of rising African American single motherhood rates. Since levels of segregation fell in recent decades, this theory can only stand up empirically if the marginal effect of segregation simultaneously rose sufficiently to offset the decline in levels. Recent quantitative work found a strong positive effect of segregation on single motherhood rates in 1990, but did not look at earlier periods. Using IPUMS data from 1940 to 1990, I find a marked strengthening in the relationship between residential segregation and single motherhood. If those estimates are valid, then segregation could account for close to one-third of the total growth in single motherhood rates during that period. However, further analysis of the apparent effect of residential isolation suggests that the observed correlation between segregation rates and single motherhood is the spurious result of selective migration across metropolitan areas.

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Authors: Clarkwest, Andrew

Conference Name: Southwestern Social Science Association Annual Meetings

Publisher Location: San Antonio, TX

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Family and Marriage, Housing and Segregation, Race and Ethnicity

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