Partnered but Poor, Single but Thriving: Rethinking Family Structure and Economic Outcomes Among Black Immigrant Women

Background & Purpose: This study examined variation in family structure and household composition among Black women in the United States, comparing US-born women with Black immigrant women from six Global South origin regions. Guided by four research questions: (1) How did marital status and household role vary across Black immigrant women from different Global South origin regions compared to US-born Black women? (2) How did patterns of childbearing and child presence in the household differ across origin groups? (3) Did rates of single motherhood differ across origin groups after controlling for age and educational attainment, and how did the direction of group differences change with demographic adjustment? (4) Among Black immigrant women, did duration of US residence and citizenship status independently predict single-mother status, and what patterns emerged from these associations?

Methods: Data were drawn from the 2024 American Community Survey accessed through IPUMS USA (N = 18,261,655 weighted; n = 128,884 unweighted). Descriptive analyses documented variation in marital status, household role, children in the household, and single-mother status across origin groups.. Logistic regression models predicted single-mother status among all Black women in the analysis sample. Model A (unadjusted) included origin group only, with US-born Black women as the reference. Model B added age group and educational attainment as controls. Model C was restricted to immigrant Black women, added years of US residence and citizenship status as duration and legal status indicators, and used Anglophone Caribbean women as the reference group. Effect sizes are emphasized over p-values given the weighted sample size. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals reported.

Results: Horn of Africa and Anglophone African women showed the highest rates of marriage and co-resident partnership, while Anglophone Caribbean and Afro-Latino women showed higher rates of single motherhood. Logistic regression models predicting single-mother status revealed that Haitian women's unadjusted single-mother prevalence reversed direction after controlling for age and educational attainment, a pattern consistent with age composition differences accounting for the apparent elevation in unadjusted analyses. After demographic adjustment, Horn of Africa women showed 51% lower single-mother odds than US-born Black women, the largest adjusted difference observed. Among immigrants, duration of US residence was associated with increasing single-mother odds beginning at 10–14 years of residence, a pattern consistent with several possible mechanisms including gradual convergence toward US family formation patterns, dissolution of transnationally maintained partnerships, and selection effects. Non-citizen status was independently associated with higher single-mother odds.

Conclusion & Implications: Future research must apply intersectionality to Black immigrant women, disaggregating data by region, language, and migration history. Crucially, legal status should be analyzed as a structural determinant affecting family stability and single-motherhood odds. Practitioners should tailor interventions to the migration stage, recognizing that family needs shift after a decade in the U.S. Social workers must prioritize resource navigation for non-citizens facing labor and benefit exclusions. Policy changes are essential: expanding access to healthcare and SNAP, eliminating eligibility barriers, and fostering economic stability through living wages and affordable housing. Together, these shifts address the systemic barriers shaping immigrant family formation.