Anthony Gunde, CNSNews.com
Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2001

"It does not surprise me. The cohabitation rate has increased by 73 percent in the past decade, and many girls are having children by the age of 18," said Janice Crouse, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Beverly LaHaye Institute.

"Most of these young women are poverty stricken because they have to pay bills without steady jobs, but the grandparents live on fixed income. It's no wonder they turn the kids to the grandparents," she said.

According to Mike McManus, president of the Potomac, Md., group Marriage Savers, since the 1960s cohabitation has increased 13 fold, from around 430,000 in 1960 to 5.5 million in 2000.

"But out of the 5.5 million cohabitants, we only had 2.3 million marriages last year," McManus said. "Yet 40 percent of the cohabitants have children. These children are in a terrible position because parents have not made a commitment to one another."

The Census Bureau said last year, 5.6 million grandparents lived with grandchildren under the age of 18. Two-point-four million of those grandparents were responsible for raising their grandchildren, with nearly one in five, or 18.9 percent, living in poverty. The worst situation was in West Virginia, where nearly a third, or 31.4 percent, of the grandparents raising their grandkids lived in poverty.

Nationwide, 12.4 million children, more than one in six, lived below the poverty line, according to the Census figures. The District of Columbia had the highest rate of impoverished children, 30.9 percent, and New Hampshire had the lowest rate, 7.1 percent. In every state in the nation, the Census Bureau reported, children were more likely to live in poverty than adults.

Children's Defense Fund (CDF), an interest group in Washington, said it was working with members of Congress on comprehensive legislation to address many of the problems facing poor children.

The bill includes assistance for grandparent-headed families, reforms for child support enforcement, expanded child-care assistance and other measures aimed at ending child poverty, said CDF.

Family Research Council said rather than focusing on the economic aspects of poverty, Americans need to concentrate on the real cause of the problem.

"It's ironic that some groups are focusing on the economic problem when this is basically a cultural decline. There has been a decline on the value of marriage. We are seeing a lot of teen-age pregnancies, divorced parents or parents in prison," said Peter Sprigg, senior director of cultural studies at FRC.

Crouse, who, along with Beverly Lahaye, co-wrote a book on family matters called "A Different Kind of Strength," said the legislation promoted by Children's Defense Fund would not solve the problem.

"We need to restore and redefine the traditional family in America. It's only the husband and wife who can raise children properly," said Crouse. "Government programs have been a failure in the past in supporting families."

McManus concurred with Crouse, saying children born out of cohabitation or single mothers do "very badly." He said organized religion had to play a role in preparation for marriages.

"The clergy does a better job of mentoring partners before getting married. We need to know that if partners live together before getting married, they are twice as likely to divorce than those who never cohabitated," said McManus.

Copyright CNSNews.com

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