This study examines the relationship between family structure, private transfers, and the economic well-being of families with children under 18. We use family wealth as a measure of economic well-being to mitigate some of the criticisms of traditional measures based on income. We examine family structure beyond marital status to include remarriage, cohabitation, and the gender of single parenthood. We focus on financial transfers from both kin and nonkin. After analyzing the distribution of family wealth and transfers by family structure, we estimate the effects of family structure, transfers, and their interaction on family wealth.
Results indicate that in each case the answer is yes.
First, blacks and Latinos are more likely than whites to view both individualistic and structuralist explanations for poverty as important. Second, respondents' self-explanations have significant effects on poverty beliefs. Results confirm, contradict, and extend current knowledge of beliefs about poverty. The lack of intergenerational class structuration undermines a key tenet of class theory. Class theory simply assumes some class structural mechanisms but such mechanisms do not presup- pose immobility.