Document Type
Discussion Paper
Publication Date
11-1-2018
CFDP Number
2156
CFDP Pages
34
Abstract
1960 to 1980 doubling (21% to 41%) of black children in one-parent families emerged from 1940-to-1970 urbanization converging population toward urbanized blacks’ historically stable high rate, not post-1960 welfare liberalization or deindustrialization. Urban and rural child socializations structured different Jim Crow Era black family formations. Agrarian economic enclaves socialized conformity to Jim Crow and two-parent families; urban enclaves rebellion, male joblessness, and destabilized families. Proxying urban/rural residence at age 16 for socialization location, logistic regressions on sixties census data confirm the hypothesis. Racialized urban socialization negatively affected two-parent family formation and poverty status of blacks but not whites.
Recommended Citation
Jaynes, Gerald David, "A Behavioral Interpretation of the Origins of African American Family Structure" (2018). Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers. 109.
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/cowles-discussion-paper-series/109