Texas Teens Cover - Senate

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY JANUARY 2001
low-income Americans. As child poverty rose, the poverty rate for the older
population continued to fall. By 1995, the poverty rate for elderly Americans had
fallen to 10.5 percent. While progress has clearly been made towards reducing
elderly poverty, little progress has been made towards reducing poverty among
young Americans.
Data compiled from the Texas State Data Center (TSDC) and the Texas Health
and Human Services Commission (THHSC) indicate that the poverty rate for
Texas children exceeded the national average in 1998. In Texas, 20 percent of all
children between 7 and 18 live in poverty. Children six and younger make up
18.89 percent of those in poverty in Texas, while those 7 through 18 years make
up 22.85 percent. In other words, 41.94 percent of the poor in Texas in 1998 were
under the age of 18.
Risk Factor 2:
Dependence on Federal Assistance
In 1994, a total of 796,348 Texans were dependent on Aid For Dependent
Children (AFDC). By March 1999, the total number dependent on Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) totaled just 313,823, a decrease of 61
percent compared to January 1994. As of December 1999, THHSC estimates that
this reduction translated into 225,066 individuals under the age of 18 who
received TANF assistance, only 4 percent of all the children who live in Texas.
Risk Factors 3 and 4:
Single Parent, or No Parents
The third and fourth risk factors for children discussed in the census bureau
report were living in a one-parent or no-parent family. The percentages of these
types of families in Texas mirror the national statistics, but with slightly fewer
two-parent homes in Texas. Roughly 67 percent of children in Texas in 1998
were being raised with both parents at home, whereas single, divorced, or
separated mothers raised approximately 25 percent of children.
When we look at the family structure of Texas children in poverty, the
percentage of children living in one- or no-parent families is even higher. Only
39 percent of poor children live with both parents, while nearly 51 percent live
with just their mother. Another five percent live with their father and almost five
percent are with neither parent.
Risk Factor 5:
Unwed Mothers
(A Higher Risk Subset of Single Parents)
Between 1970 and 1998, the number of children living with a never-married
mother increased more than 3,000 percent.
Texas has a smaller percentage of children living with a never-married mother
than the nation as a whole: 6 percent versus 11 percent nationwide.
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SENATE RESEARCH CENTER
Safe Passages: Texas Teens on the Road to Adulthood - viii