Single-parent Households and Percent of Population Below the Poverty Level
Summary
Context for Use
This activity is appropriate for Principles, Introductory Microeconomics, and for elective courses such as Labor Economics and Development Economics.
Background knowledge on the topic can be supplemented through the materials listed in the "Information given to students." Instructors are encouraged to design Just-In-Time-Teaching questions to improve student preparation and target instruction (See here: https://serc.carleton.edu/econ/justintime/index.html).
Students must be able to follow directions on the GeoFRED site: search for data; modify the units; change the date range; choose map colors; and edit the legends.To preserve class time for activities in which there is great benefit in face-to-face interaction, the instructor could copy the map-building instructions into a handout and assign that work as out-of-class preparation.
No class size limitations.Time needed for the activity: 30 minutes.
Should not need more one class period.
Self-standing activity.
Overview
Students search for data and visualize them in GeoFRED, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis online mapping tool. The learning goals of this activity are: (1) to observe patterns in economic data and note differences across geographical areas; (2) hypothesize the reasons for those patterns and differences.
The intended outcome of the activity is the illustration of the relationship between single-parent households and population below the poverty level and the potential explanations for this relationship.
Expected Student Learning Outcomes
In this exercise students will be able to:
1. Observe an direct relationship between single-parent households and population below the poverty level across U.S. counties;
2. Evaluate the reasons for the observed direct relationship between single-parent households and population below the poverty level.
Information Given to Students
Go to the following web address and watch the video: https://youtu.be/M6QSI_Ze9hE
On the GeoFRED website, https://geofred.stlouisfed.org/, create a map by following these instructions:
1. Click on "Build New Map"
2. Click on "Tools"
3. Click on "Choose Data" and select "Region Type: County"
4. Select "Data: Single-parent Households with Children as a Percentage of Households with Children"
5. Select "Date: 2016"
6. Click on "Edit Legend" and select "Number of Color Classes: 2"
7. Enter "50" in the top value box and "100" in the bottom value box
8. Click on "Choose Colors" and select "Single Hues: greens"
Open a new browser tab, go to the GeoFRED website, and create a second map by following these instructions:
1. Click on "Build New Map"
2. Click on "Tools"
3. Click on "Choose Data" and select "Region Type: County"
4. Select "Data: Percent of Population Below the Poverty Level"
5. Select "Date: 2016"
6. Click on "Edit Legend" and select "Number of Color Classes: 4"
7. Enter "10" in the top value box, "15" in the second value box from the top, "25" in the third value box from the top, and "49" in the bottom value box.
8. Click on "Choose Colors" and select "Single Hues: greens"
Examine the maps and hypothesize the reasons for the observed relationship between the frequency in single-parent households and the percentage of the population below the poverty level.
Rank the following factors in order from the most likely to influence the observed relationship between single-parent households and population below the poverty level to the factors least likely to influence the observed relationship.
A. Unemployed people are more likely to become single parents;
B. People with less education are more likely to become single parents;
C. Being a single parent makes it more difficult to attain higher education;
D. Being a single parent makes it more difficult to hold a job.
Teaching Notes and Tips
Figure 1. 2016 Single-parent Households with Children as a Percentage of Households with Children by County. http://geof.red/m/hpz
Figure 2. 2016 Percent of Population Below the Poverty Level by County. http://geof.red/m/hpy
What prefatory remarks should set up the application exercise?
Parenting and working outside the home compete for time during the week. Parenting as a single mother or as a single father makes people less likely to work long hours, advance professionally or pursue an education. Rather than simply admonish students to "avoid becoming a single parent", this exercise allows students to visualize the relationship between the proportion of single-parent households and the percent of the population below the poverty level. The goal of this exercise is to encourage students to think about the reason for such correlation.
What kinds of strategies are recommended for facilitating reporting and inter-group conversations?
The instructor should direct student groups to work in two phases: first, have team reporters identify and discuss the most important determinant factor; second, have team reporters identify and discuss the least important determinant factor.
What kinds of follow-up questions are recommended for facilitating the debriefing conversation among team reporters?
On the first map, the darker green color indicates counties where more than 50% of the households with children are single-parent households. On the second map, the darker green colors indicate counties with a larger proportion of the population living below the poverty level. Don't overlook Alaska!
Single parenting makes poverty more likely not because solo parents are unemployed and therefore not earning an income, but because single parenting limits the amount of time available to pursue a career or complete an education. Frequently, single parents have low levels of educational attainment to begin with and pursuing one's education while raising and educating your own child is difficult. This makes for a poverty trap. Additionally, the relationship between educational attainment, cyclical unemployment, average income, and poverty is well documented, although it is not illustrated here.
What points should be emphasized in the instructor's summary remarks to conclude the exercise?
A. In 2014, 26% of children lived in single-parent families and 61% of children lived with two married parents;B. In 2014, 31% of children living in single-parent households were living below the poverty line. By contrast, only 10% of children living with two married parents were in this circumstance.
C. In 2014, just 11% of women with a college degree or more who had a baby in the prior year were unmarried. In comparison, this share was about four times as high (43%) for new mothers with some college but no college degree;
D. In 2017, 35% of all single parents were between the ages of 16 and 24;
E. Single and cohabiting parents are about equally likely to be employed (72% and 73%, respectively).
Assessment
1) Similarities in the percentage of single-parent households and percent of population below the poverty level are observed;
2) Single-parenting makes more difficult the pursuit of a career or an education –it increases the opportunity costs of activities that allow individuals escape poverty;
2) Compelling arguments are presented in the ranking of reasons for the observed correlation.
The following essay question could be asked as a follow-up to the exercise:
Single-parenting and living below the poverty level are correlated. What economic argument(s) can explain this relationship? Explain your argument(s) carefully.
References and Resources
https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2018/04/25/the-changing-profile-of-unmarried-parents/
https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2018/04/25/appendix-3/