Illegitimacy a Major Cause of Dependence and Poverty

Marriage is dying in America. Last year, roughly a third of all births in the United States were out-of wedlock. The portion of all births that are illegitimate is increasing relentlessly at about 1 percentage point a year.

The most obvious consequences of the rising tide of illegitimacy and declining marriage are welfare dependence and child poverty. The chart shows data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) which contains a national representative sample of young mothers and their children.1

The research divides children into four groups:

• Out-of-wedlock-Never Married--Children born out of wedlock whose mother has never married after the birth of the child;

• Out-of-wedlock-Subsequent Marriage--Children born out of wedlock whose mother marries subsequent to the child's birth;

• Within Wedlock-Divorced--Children born to married parents who later divorce;

• Within Wedlock-Marriage Intact--Children born to parents who were married at the time of birth and remained married.

Children born out-of-wedlock whose mothers have not married have received AFDC benefits for 50 percent of the time since birth. By contrast, children who were born in wedlock and whose parents have remained married have received AFDC only 3 percent of the time since birth. Thus, AFDC receipt is 1700 percent more frequent among illegitimate children of never-married mothers than among legitimate children raised by intact married couples.

If a woman gives birth out-of-wedlock but subsequently marries, the average length of time spent on AFDC will be cut in half. Marriage even after an out-of-wedlock birth is thus quite effective in reducing dependence. Conversely, if the parents of a legitimate child divorce, the length of time on AFDC will rise from 3 percent (for intact married couples) to 11 percent for divorced families.

How much time children in the four categories received any of the following means-tested welfare benefits: AFDC, Food Stamps, Medicaid, SSI, and WIC. On average, children in the "out-of-wedlock-never married" group received some form of welfare benefit for 71 percent of the months since birth. By contrast, legitimate children whose parents remained married have received some welfare for 11 percent of the time. Welfare receipt is seven times greater among the never-married group.

For over three decades, the U.S. welfare system has massively subsidized and promoted illegitimacy and single parenthood, with devastating effects on children and society. The recent welfare reform bill began to reverse this pattern with provisions to combat illegitimacy. The primary goal of welfare reform must continue to be saving marriage. Without reversing the current trends and bringing down the number of out-of-wedlock births, dependency will continue to rise.

1 The National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) contains a nationally representative sample of men and women who were aged 14 to 21 in 1979 when the survey began. In each year, the survey has tracked these individuals, compiling a detailed social and economic history of each, including information on each child born to NLSY women. The youngest NLSY women have now reached age 30; children of NLSY mothers had an average age of roughly nine years at the period of this analysis (1992).

Robert Rector is a welfare expert at The Heritage Foundation.