What about These Children? Assessing Poverty among the 'Hidden Population' of Multiracial Children in Single-Mother Families. University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series, DP2010-09

Capturing the conditions of children of color living in single-parent families has become more complex due to the growing presence of interracial households. This analysis assesses the size and poverty status of single-female headed families housing multiracial children. Using data from the 2000 Census, we find that 9 percent of female-headed families house either children who are classified with more than one race or are classified as a single race different than their mother's compared to only 3 percent of married couple families. Logistic regression analyses assessing the odds of poverty status for families finds that being a multiracial family does not constitute a uniform advantage or disadvantage for female headed households. Rather, these families, like most families of color, are more likely to experience poverty than white monoracial families. The two exceptions are White multiracial families who are more likely to be in poverty relative to this reference group and Asian multiracial families who have similar poverty rates as white monoracial families (and a lower rate than Asian monoracial families). (Contains 5 tables and 2 endnotes.) [This analysis was supported by the University of Kentucky Poverty Center Young Investigator's grant and the Woodrow Wilson Fellowship Foundation both awarded to the first author.]