New Perspectives on Poverty among Single Parents: Accounting for Diversity and Pre-Parenthood Characteristics

Persistent poverty remains a pressing issue in the United States (U.S.), particularly in comparison to other high-income countries. A dominant explanation for high poverty rates in the U.S. centers on family structure – especially the declines in marriage rates and the rise in mother-headed households. This line of reasoning aligns with behavioral explanations to poverty, which emphasize personal responsibility and individual choices. In contrast, this dissertation adopts an institutional and life-course perspective, arguing that poverty among single parents is not a consequence of family structure per se, but a reflection of long-term disadvantage and insufficient welfare support. While existing institutional theories have highlighted the importance of welfare regimes in mitigating poverty, they often treat single parenthood as a monolithic or static experience. This thesis argues that poverty must be understood as a cumulative outcome of life-course disadvantages and inadequate policy support. In doing so, it aims to adapt institutional theories to better account for the diversity and lived realities of single parents. Using longitudinal panel data from five high-income countries (U.S., United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Switzerland), the thesis analyzes the poverty experiences of single parents over time. It accounts for heterogeneity in single parenthood by distinguishing pathways into single parenthood (divorce, separation, widowhood, nonmarital births) and by exploring the sociodemographic composition of these pathways across time. Then, it explores different poverty outcomes of single parents and their children across these pathways and across time. Using decomposition techniques, it disentangles the relative contribution of family structure, pre-parenthood disadvantage, and policy interventions to poverty outcomes. The results show that poverty among single parents is not evenly distributed. Never-married and separated single parents in the U.S. face the highest poverty risks, while divorced and widowed parents fare better. Cross-national comparisons reveal stark differences: U.S. single parents are uniquely vulnerable, in part due to weak income protection policies. Importantly, the pathways into single parenthood explain within-country variation but do little to explain cross-national differences—policy generosity is the key factor in explaining cross-country differences. Longitudinal analysis reveals that many single parents already experience poverty up to a decade before becoming parents. Over 60% of single-parent poverty is attributable to pre-parenthood conditions, suggesting that single parenthood mediates, rather than causes, adult poverty. These findings challenge the logic of marriage promotion as an anti-poverty strategy and instead point to the need for comprehensive welfare programs to reduce child poverty. This dissertation reframes the debate on the relationship between single parenthood and poverty. It challenges behaviorally driven explanations and demonstrates that poverty among single-parent families stems not from marital choices but from life-long disadvantages and policy failure. By integrating insights from life-course analysis, and within-group differentiation, it extends the theoretical scope of institutional explanations to poverty. The findings underscore the importance of comprehensive policies to improve material resources among single-parent families as opposed to marriage promotion.