Has Children's Poverty Become More Persistent?

Abstract

Iffood-stamp benefits are counted as income, there is little change in estimates ofpersistent povertyfor children between the late 1960s and early 1980s. However, the absence of change in persistent poverty masks a number of important changes in the demographic and statistical structure ofpersistent poverty. These changes include increasing inequality in the distribution of permanent socioeconomic position, greater dependence on social assistance, and the more familiar demographic changes such as increased numbers of single-parent families, higher educational attainments of parents, and decline in family size.