Youths Living in Poverty Put at 13 Million

Nearly 13 million American children under 18 are living in poverty and more than a quarter of all children under 18 have mothers working full time, according to a “report card” on the status of children issued Saturday by the House Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families.

Nonetheless, the statistics show that the family is still a vigorous and powerful institution, the report said, with about 75% of all children under 18 living in two-parent families.

But Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez), committee chairman, said in a statement that the overall figures mask tremendous strains and pressures that are reshaping the traditional family structure.

‘Enormous Stress’

Miller said mounting statistical evidence shows that trends toward “single-parent households, mothers in the work force, children in poverty cannot be viewed as temporary phenomena.” Miller said the figures show that the “American family is under enormous economic stress.”

Committee Republicans, led by Rep. Dan Coats of Indiana, said that they do not believe some of those trends are necessarily permanent. In addition to some bad news, they said, the report “contains a lot of good news.” They explained that the poverty rate among children, which has been on the rise for several years, has now fallen back to only slightly above the 1981 level.

The total number of children in the United States in 1985, the report said, was 63 million, and five-sixths of them were white.

Up and Down Trend

The proportion of children in poverty--26.9% in 1959, the first year for which figures have been calculated--dropped to 14.9% by 1970, but then, because of recessions and slow economic growth and inflation, rose again to 21.8% in 1983 and was 20.1% in 1985.