现今美国单身母亲家庭贫困状况及原因分析

20世纪末期 ,美国的家庭结构发生了重大变化 ,只有母亲的单亲家庭迅猛增加 ,随之而来的是这类单身母亲家庭中普遍存在的贫困问题。本文揭示了当代美国单身母亲家庭的高贫困率现象 ,并通过分析指出导致其贫困直接原因和根本原因 ;前者包括离婚和未婚生育 。

In the last few decades of the twentieth century the institution of family in the United States has experienced dramatic changes resulting in a surge of single mother families. The rise in the number of single mother families has been found to be closely related to the increase of the population in poverty in the United States. The purpose of this thesis is to study the poverty and its causes in American single mother families. The author deems that poverty in this type of families is the outcome of two folded causes, namely, immediate causes and the ultimate ones. The immediate causes include divorce and premarital childbearing. The ultimate causes consist of gender and race discrimination.