Not only does this create immediate poverty situations, it often creates cycles of poverty. Of those never-married mothers who receive welfare benefits, almost 40 percent remain on the rolls for ten years or longer. Second, welfare dependency tends to be passed on from one generation to the next. Nor is the intergenerational impact of single motherhood limited to African-Americans, as many people seem to believe. All these intergenerational consequences of single motherhood increase the likelihood of chronic welfare dependency.
Divorce brings a reduction in income and standard of living for the vast majority of single mothers.
One study, for example, found that income for mothers and children declines on average about 30 percent, while fathers experience a 10 to 15 percent increase in income in the year following a separation. Things get even more difficult when fathers fail to meet their child-support obligations. Uncertainty about money triggers other kinds of uncertainty. Mothers and children often have to move to cheaper housing after a divorce. One study shows that about 38 percent of divorced mothers and their children move during the first year after a divorce.