Defining Family by Children's Living Arrangements

While the average American may think of family as Mom, Dad, 2.2 children and a dog, that picture is not as common as you might think. Today’s families may be nuclear, adopted, blended or extended. They may not include siblings, or even parents. For many children, family is defined by their living arrangement. That being the case, here’s how American children might define their families today, according to a recent Census Bureau report, “Living Arrangements of Children.”

Seventy-one percent of children live in two-parent households, 26% live in single-parent households, and 4% live without either parent. 15% of children live in blended families, and 21% live in households with no siblings. Those with single parents (remember, that’s one out of every four) have a poverty rate of 27% - double the overall poverty rate for all households with kids. Also of interest: single mother households went from 8% 100 years ago to 11% in 1970 to 22% today.

Rearchers attribute the changing makeup of families to many cultural and economic factors and see more change to come. So . . . what does “family” mean to you?