This research will help fill a major gap in our knowledge of historical differences in black and white families/household. the project will analyze linked household records from 1) a Public Use Sample drawn form manuscript records of the 1910 U.S. Census of Population and 2) a supplementary sample of southern blacks drawn from the same source. No pre-1940 national study of family/household structure has been undertaken and these data allow detailed description of individuals' and families' living arrangements. Proposed work will provide estimates of racial differences in 1) the proportion of households that are nuclear, extended and augmented 2) the prevalence of female headed households and 3) the residential statuses of children, especially the proportion of children apparently not living with mothers or living in female headed families. Black/white differences in theses measures will be examined across regions, states and rural-urban residence, by characteristics of husbands' or wives' (such as age, literacy and employment status) and by serial measures of occupational segregation, racial density, and sex ratios. These and additional tabulations will be used to test hypotheses regarding the causes of racial differences in family/household structure. Most generally, can the racial difference be accounted for by the higher mortality and/or the lower socioeconomic position of blacks? Are there social contexts characterized by low sex ratios and/or racial concentration that affect family/household structure?
| Preston, S H; Lim, S; Morgan, S P (1992) African-American marriage in 1910: beneath the surface of census data. Demography 29:1-15 |
