Poverty among cohabiting gay and lesbian, and married and cohabiting heterosexual families

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-2010

Publication Title

Journal of Family Issues

Volume

31

Issue

7

First page number:

934

Last page number:

959

Abstract

Using a subsample ( N = 1,365,145) of the 2000 Census 5% Public Use Microdata Sample, the authors investigate explanations for differing poverty chances of cohabiting gay and lesbian, and married and cohabiting heterosexual families. Gay and lesbian couples fare worse than married couples, but better economically than cohabiting heterosexuals. Lesbian and gay families are older and more educated than cohabiting heterosexual families, and these differences explain the largest portion of differences in poverty rates. Greater educational attainment and labor force participation are better explanations than age for differences between married families and their gay and lesbian counterparts. These results add to recent research pointing to variations in the economic circumstances of different family forms.

Keywords

Cohabiting parents; Educational attainment; Families; Family structure; Gay couples; Gay parents; Gay; lesbian; bisexual; transgender; Lesbian couples; Marriage; Married people; Poverty; Sexual minorities; Unmarried couples

Disciplines

Family, Life Course, and Society | Gender and Sexuality | Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies | Sociology

Language

English

Permissions

Use Find in Your Library, contact the author, or use interlibrary loan to garner a copy of the article. Publisher copyright policy allows author to archive post-print (author’s final manuscript). When post-print is available or publisher policy changes, the article will be deposited

Publisher Citation

Prokos, A. H., & Keene, J. R. (2010). Poverty among cohabiting gay and lesbian, and married and cohabiting heterosexual families. Journal of Family Issues, 31(7), 934-959. doi:10.1177/0192513X09360176

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