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Lin, and Sara McLanahan, “Understanding Child Support Trends: Economic, Demographic, and Political Contributions,” National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper 8056, Figure 1b. For a tabulation of Tom and Susan’s predivorce expenditures, see “Typical budget, four-person family” for “Tom and Susan” in note 121, chapter 2. The calculation of Susan’s postdivorce discretionary income adds full-time child-care costs for a preschooler and a grade-schooler. Child-care costs based on the average expenditures for nonfamily care outside a child’s home for a mother working full-time (2,000 hours per year). Calculated from Richard L. Shortlidge and Patricia Brito, “How Women Arrange for the Care of Their Children While They Work: A Study of Child Care Arrangements, Costs, and Preferences in 1971,” Center for Human Resource Research, College of Administrative Science, Ohio State University, Table 15, Unadjusted and Adjusted Expenditures for Child Care, by Socioeconomic and Demographic Characteristics, 1971 (White Women with Youngest Child 3 to 5 Years of Age), and Table 17, Unadjusted and Adjusted Expenditures for Child Care, by Socioeconomic and Demographic Characteristics, 1971 (White Women with Youngest Child 6 to 13 Years of Age). The calculation assumes that Susan will keep the car or purchase another one of similar value. It also assumes that she keeps the same, predivorce expenses for the mortgage and health insurance.

28 For a tabulation of Justin and Kimberly’s predivorce expenditures, see “Typical budget, four-person family” for “Justin and Kimberly” in note 121, chapter 2. As in the 1970s example, child support is calculated at 18 percent of the ex-husband’s income. The calculation assumes that Kimberly keeps one car and Justin takes the other. It also assumes that Kimberly keeps the same, predivorce expenses for the mortgage, health insurance, and child care. We note that one-quarter of noncustodial parents provide health insurance for their children. Timothy Grall, U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau, “Child Support for Custodial Mothers and Fathers” (October 2000), p. 5. If we assumed instead that the father provides health insurance for his ex-wife and his children, the family’s discretionary income would decline slightly less precipitously after divorce. Under this scenario, postdivorce discretionary income as a proportion of predivorce income would be 21 percent in 1973 and 6 percent in 2000—an improvement of 2 percentage points in both years.

29 In 1977 only 38 percent of families had a bank-type credit card, compared with 68 percent in 1998. Thomas A. Durkin, “Credit Cards: Use and Consumer Attitudes, 1970-2000,” Federal Reserve Bulletin (September 2000), Table 1. Available at http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/bulletin/2000/0900lead.pdf [12/3/02].

30 SMR Research Corporation, The New Bankruptcy Epidemic: Forecasts, Causes, and Risk Control (Hackettstown, NJ, 2001), pp. 14, 94. Credit card debt calculated as revolving credit per adult divided by income per adult. The earliest year in which consistent data on both credit card debt and savings rates are available is 1981. We note, however, that by beginning in 1981, we understate the magnitude of the change over the past generation. In the early 1970s, credit card debt for the average family was even lower. In 1968, for example, total revolving credit outstanding was just $2 billion, compared with $626 billion in 2000. Durkin, “Credit Cards,” p. 623.

31 The difference between median income of single mothers and married couples with children calculated from U.S. Census Bureau, Table F-10, Presence of Children Under 18 Years Old by Type of Family and Median and Mean Income, 1974 to 2000. Available at http://www.census.gov/hhes/income/histinc/f10.html [3/27/03].

32 Pamela J. Smock, “The Economic Costs of Marital Disruption for Young Women over the Past Two Decades,” Demography 30 (August 1993): 359.

33 Never-married women constitute 37 percent of all divorced, never married, separated, and widowed mothers in bankruptcy, compared with 43.2 percent