Indicators of Welfare Dependence, 1997

ECONOMIC SECURITY RISK FACTOR 9. FOOD INSECURITY

Household food insecurity, including (at a severe level) direct hunger among children in the household, is related to general income poverty and is expected to affect children's health, cognitive and social development, and general school success.

• A large majority (88 percent) of American households were food secure in the year ending April 1995.
• About 11.9 million (of approximately 100 million) households experienced food insecurity -- not being able to afford enough food -- at some level during 1995. Most of the food insecure households were "food insecure without hunger," meaning that although food insecurity was evident in their concerns and in adjustments to household food management, including reduced quality of diets, little or no reduction in food intake was reported.
• About 4 percent of the 100 million households were classified as food insecure with hunger. Thus, one or more adult members of some 4.2 million households were estimated to have experienced reduced food intake and hunger as a result of financial constraints in the year ending April 1995.
• About 800,000 households were classified as "food insecure with severe hunger," meaning that children, as well as adults, experienced reduced food intake and hunger.

Table ECON 9. Percentage of Households Classified as Food Insecure, 1995

		Food Insecure	Food Insecure	Food Insecure
	Food Secure	No Hunger	Moderate Hunger	Severe Hunger
All Households	88.1	7.8	3.3	0.8
Households with Children Under 6, by Race
White	82.6	13.1	3.6	0.6
Black	70.1	19.7	8.8	1.4
Hispanic	66.8	23.6	7.9	1.7
Other	79.4	14.1	4.0	2.6
Households with Children Under 18, by Race
White	84.6	11.1	3.6	0.7
Black	71.8	18.1	8.5	1.6
Hispanic	69.6	21.6	7.5	1.3
Other	81.1	12.6	4.7	1.6
Households with Elderly but no Children, by Race
White	95.3	3.2	1.3	0.2
Black	81.7	12.6	4.3	1.4
Hispanic	79.1	15.2	4.0	1.7
Other	87.7	7.8	3.6	0.9
Household Income-to-Poverty Ratio (all races and household types)
Under 0.50	58.4	24.6	12.1	4.9
Under 1.00	64.7	22.1	10.0	3.1
Under 1.30	68.1	20.0	9.3	2.6
Under 1.85	73.8	17.0	7.3	1.9
1.85 and over	95.8	2.8	1.2	0.2
Households with Children under 18 (all races)
Married-Couple Families	88.5	8.8	2.3	0.5
Female Head, No Spouse	64.7	22.9	10.3	2.0
Male Head, No Spouse	81.4	12.0	5.6	1.0

Note: Persons of Hispanic ethnicity can be any race.

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Consumer Service, Office of Analysis and Evaluation, Household Food Security in the United States in 1995.

• Table ECON 9 shows that white households with children had the lowest prevalence of food insecurity of any racial group and female-headed households with children under 18 had a higher prevalence of food insecurity compared to male-headed or married-couple families.
• Although there were higher prevalences of food security as the household income-to-poverty ratio increased, Table ECON 9 shows that significant increases only occurred when income levels exceeded 185 percent of poverty.

ECONOMIC SECURITY RISK FACTOR 10. HEALTH INSURANCE

A lack of health insurance may be the precursor to future health problems and as such a risk-factor of dependence.

• Among all age categories, young adults age 18 to 24 were the most likely to be without health insurance in 1996 (29 percent).
• Sixteen percent of the population was without health insurance in 1996 as shown in Table ECON 10.
• Table ECON 10 also shows that among racial groups, a much larger percentage of Hispanics were without health insurance (34 percent) than non-Hispanic whites (12 percent) or non-Hispanic blacks (22 percent).

Table ECON 10. Percent of Persons Without Health Insurance by Age, 1996

All Persons	16
Non-Hispanic White	12
Non-Hispanic Black	22
Hispanic	34
Other	21
Children 0 - 5	14
Children 6 - 8	14
Children 9 - 11	15
Children 12 - 14	16
Children 15 - 17	17
Total 0 - 17	15
Adults 18 - 24	29
Adults 25 - 34	22
Adults 35 - 44	16
Adults 45 - 54	14
Adults 55 - 64	14
Women Age 18 - 64	14
Men Age 18 - 64	18
Adults Age 65 and over	1

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, March Current Population Survey, 1997.

ECONOMIC SECURITY RISK FACTOR 11. PERCENT RESIDING IN HIGH-POVERTY NEIGHBORHOODS

High poverty neighborhoods are often associated with relatively lower quality services (e.g., education, medical) that can have a negative effect on development and increase the risk of dependence.

• Nearly a quarter of all children resided in neighborhoods where over 20 percent of the residents were poor and 5 percent of children resided in neighborhoods where over 40 percent of residents were poor.
• Black children and Hispanic children were disproportionately represented in these poor neighborhoods, with a slightly higher percentage of black children living in poor neighborhoods than Hispanic children.

Table ECON 11. Percent of Children Residing in High-Poverty Neighborhoods, 1990

	Total	White	Black	Hispanic
Neighborhood over 20% Poor	22.9	12.2	56.4	46.6
Neighborhood over 40% Poor	5.0	1.2	18.6	11.3

Note: Neighborhoods are defined as census tracts and block-numbering areas. Both metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas are included. The poverty rate is the percent of all persons in the neighborhood living in families below the poverty line in 1990.

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Trends in the Well-Being of America's Children and Youth: 1997. Table PF 3.2.

ECONOMIC SECURITY RISK FACTOR 12. RESIDENTIAL MOBILITY

Frequent changes of residence are disruptive events for children and may increase the risk of dependence.

• Female-headed families with children were much more likely to move in a year than married-couple families with children, in each of the one-year periods shown.
• Residential mobility decreased one percentage point every two years for children age 1 to 14 from 1987 - 1988 to 1993 - 1994.
• Residential mobility for adults age 25 and above remained essentially unchanged, dropping only one percentage point over this period.

Table ECON 12. Percent of Individuals and Families who Movedin a Given One-Year Period

	1987 - 88	1989 - 90	1991 - 92	1993 - 94
Age 1 to 14	20	19	18	17
Age 25 and Above	15	15	15	14
Married-Couple Families with Children	17	17	16	15
Female Single-Parent Families with Children	29	29	31	28

Note: Residential mobility measures the percent of individuals over age 1 who changed houses between March of the first year and March of the next year. The mobility of married-couple and female single-parent families is the percent of householders age 15 to 54 with own children under 18 who changed houses.

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, "Geographical Mobility," Current Population Reports, Series P20-456, 473 and 485, various years.

ECONOMIC SECURITY RISK FACTOR 13. ADULT INCARCERATION

This risk factor tracks trends in the extent to which adults are living apart from their children because they are incarcerated. An incarcerated parent leaves his/her family at increased risk of dependence.

• The number of black men incarcerated per 100,000 population increased 167 percent from 1981 to 1995, while the number of white men incarcerated increased 148 percent in the same period.
• Table ECON 13 shows that the number of women incarcerated, while still very small relative to men, rose 300 percent from 1981 to 1995, with white female incarceration increasing 314 percent and black female incarceration increasing 256 percent.
• Table ECON 13 also shows that black men and black women were more likely to be incarcerated than white men and white women in 1995.

Table ECON 13. Estimated Number of Sentenced Prisoners Under State or Federal Jurisdiction per 100,000 Resident Population

	Total Men	All	White	Black	All	White	Black
	and Women	Men	Men	Men	Women	Women	Women
1981	154	304	186	1217	12	7	50
1983	179	354	217	1412	15	9	58
1985	202	397	246	1559	17	10	68
1987	231	453	277	1800	22	13	82
1989	276	535	317	2200	29	17	115
1991	313	606	352	2523	34	19	135
1993	359	698	398	2920	41	23	165
1995	411	796	461	3250	48	29	178

Note: Sentenced prisoners are those with a sentence of more than 1 year. Rates are based on U.S. resident population on July 1 of each year.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Correctional Populations in the United States, 1993.

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