Men Women and the Family - Custodial Parents

Custodial parent is the term used by the government to describe a single parent who has been awarded legal custody of one or more of his or her children, usually as part of a divorce. The Census Bureau reported that in the spring of 2002 an estimated 13.4 million parents had custody of 21.5 million children under the age twenty-one. About 84% of custodial parents were mothers and 15% were fathers, a proportion that had not changed since 1994. Between 1993 and 2001 the percentage of custodial parents employed in full-time, year-round jobs rose from 45.6% to 55.3%. Throughout that same time period, as employment of custodial mothers increased, the employment of custodial fathers remained relatively stable. (See Figure 2.7.)

With increased employment, the proportion of custodial parents living below the poverty level dropped from

FIGURE 2.6

33.3% in 1993 to 23.4% by 2001, according to U.S. Census data. (See Figure 2.8.) Despite the steady decline in poverty for custodial parent families, their poverty rate was still four times that of married-couple families. Increased unemployment since 2001 may have changed the number of custodial parents living below the poverty level. The BLS reported that the jobless rate rose from 4.7% in 2001 to a peak of 6.5% in mid-2003. By November 2004 the jobless rate hovered near 5.5%.

The Census Bureau reported that about 63% of custodial mothers and 38.6% of custodial fathers had agreements or awards for child support payments from the other parent. The majority of them were waiting for pastdue payments in 2001. The average annual amount of partial payments received was $4,300 and did not differ between mothers and fathers. The proportion of custodial parents receiving every payment they were due increased from 36.9% in 1993 to 46.2% in 1997 then slipped to 44.8% by 2001. (See Figure 2.9.) When there were no delinquent payments, custodial parents received an average of $5,800 per year.