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Asian-Americans Have Less Single Moms

Tuesday, July 3, 2001 

WASHINGTON (AP) - An Asian-American home is less likely to be 
headed by a single mother than the home of a white or black family, 
according to census figures that spotlight racial differences in the 
composition of American families.

There were smaller shares of single-mother family homes among 
Asians than among black or non-Hispanic white families in 16 of 20 states 
that have received the latest wave of 2000 census data.

Figures released Tuesday for Oregon, for instance, showed 6.6 
percent of Asian family households were led by single moms, compared with 
8.8 percent of non-Hispanic white families and 27.2 percent of black 
families.

A large part of the Asian population boom in America during the 
1990s was from new immigrants who typically come from more conservative, 
family-centered backgrounds and ``do not really accept nontraditional 
households,'' said Sharon Lee, a sociology professor at Portland State 
University.

But that upbringing may also cause a possible undercount in Asian 
single-mother households, said Christopher Kui, executive director of 
Asian Americans for Equality.

Because divorce and single-motherhood tend to have more of a 
social stigma in Asian families, ``there are hidden separations that people 
don't talk about,'' Kui said.

Nationally, there was a 25 percent increase between 1990 and 2000 
in the category of ``female householder, no husband present with own 
children under 18,'' regardless of race.

That category could also include a woman raising a child with an 
unmarried partner, or a woman living with a parent or friend who helps 
with child-rearing. But surveys show that most of those households 
include only single mothers, bureau analyst Jason Fields said.

There are no national breakdowns by race and Hispanic origin 
available yet for 2000.

On the state level, references to race in 2000 refer to those who 
selected only one race on their form; the figures do not include those 
who may have taken advantage of the first-ever option of checking off 
more than one race.

So in New York for instance, 4.4 percent of family households 
headed by someone identified as only Asian were headed by a single mother. 
That was compared to 29.6 percent of families led by a person 
identified as only black, and 6.8 percent of families headed by someone only 
non-Hispanic white.

All 50 states are scheduled to get their numbers by next month.

Overall, single-parent homes have risen tremendously over the 
past 30 years, though census surveys indicate that the increases have 
slowed during the latter half of the 1990s, said John Haaga, a demographer 
with the Population Reference Bureau.

Black women tend to have a higher percentage of out-of-wedlock 
births than other minority groups, and there are disproportionately 
higher numbers of black men in prison, said Paul Watanabe, co-director of 
the Institute for Asian-American Studies at the University of 
Massachusetts-Boston.

Bianca Robinson, 21 and black, divides her time raising a 
2-year-old daughter on her own and working in a prelaw program at the 
University of Illinois.

Her daughter spends much of the summer with her father, whom 
Robinson did not marry and does not live with. Robinson depends on friends 
to help care for the child while she is in class or at work.

``For some people I know, the child's father isn't involved, and 
some of them have a harder time financially,'' said Robinson, who helps 
organize a group for single mothers of all races at the school. ``I get 
a lot of help.''

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On the Net:

Census Bureau: http://www.census.gov