More than half of older US teenagers are not living with both
married parents, according to a new study. 
The data, taken from that US Census Bureau’s
American Community Survey, shows that of the 12.8 million teenagers aged 15-17 years
old in the U.S. in 2008, just 5.8
million, or 45 per cent were living with both married birth parents.
The new study, called the US Index of
Belonging and Rejection, is written by Pat Fagan of the Family Research
Council
It shows
that a further
seven million 15-17 year olds were
living with one birth parent only, with a birth parent and a stepparent, with
two cohabiting parents, or with neither parent (in adoptive or foster families,
in group quarters, or on their own).
The survey also analysed the situation at
both a regional and ethnic/racial level. It showed that the proportion of teens
living with both parents across their childhood varied dramatically across
ethnic and racial groups.
The figures showed that Asian-American
teenagers were the most likely to live with both married parents. Sixty two per
cent of older teenagers
in this group lived with both married parents.
By comparision, a little over half (54 per
cent) of whites aged 15-17, live with both parents.
Forty per cent of Hispanic teenagers live
with both parents, while only 17 per cent of African-American youth—less than
one in five—live with both married parents.
However, the study says that there are also
variations that cannot be explained by socioeconomic and ethnic factors. These
variations have to do with the cultural commitment to traditional family life
in particular geographic areas.
According to the figures, married two-parent
families are still the norm for teenagers in eleven states, with Utah (59 per
cent), New Hampshire (58 per cent), Minnesota (57 per cent), and Nebraska (57
per cent) having the highest percentage of older teens living with both married parents.
Among the four regions of the United States
the Northeast is the strongest (50.4 per cent) while the South (41 per cent) is
the weakest)
The South—mistakenly thought of as the most
tradition-bound region in the US—has the least family-friendly environment for
children. In the majority of Southern states, fewer than 40 per cent of
teenagers live with both married parents. The Southern states are also among the poorest in the US.
In some states, such as Mississippi (32 per
cent) and Louisiana (34 per cent), only one third of children enter adulthood
from an intact family.
The study also notes that increased rates of
divorce and childbearing outside of marriage have turned growing up in a
stable, two-parent family into an exception, rather than the rule, for young
Americans.
Pointing to figures from the National Center
for Health Statistics’ (NCHS)1995 Survey of Family Growth Report, it says that approximately
43 per cent of first marriages in the US end in divorce in the first fifteen
years of marriage (the rate is somewhat lower for first marriages involving children), and
today, 3.6 divorces occur for every 1,000 couples married, up from 2.2 divorces
per 1,000 marriages in 1960.
Moreover, the divorce rate exists alongside a
decreasing marriage rate. The number of children living in intact married two-parent families
drops proportionately as young people go from early childhood to adolescence
with separated or divorced parents.