Introduction
The gap between the poor and the rich is widening in the US, making the American dream impossible for many people, especially children and families. This provocative article written by Sara McLanahan discussed the diverging destinies of children and families within the US’s spectrum of growing economic inequality. One of the main findings or ideas in this article is the categorization of women into two trajectories. The first trajectory belongs to women involved in delays in childbearing and increased employment opportunities (McLanahan & Jacobsen, 2015). The second trajectory belongs to women who get involved in divorce issues and high level of non-marital childbearing (McLanahan & Jacobsen, 2015). These trajectories best support these ideas: changes in family behaviors, social inequality, and outside childbearing marriage. Intrinsically, the response paper synthesizes and critically evaluates the main ideas in the reading about diverging destinies and other texts. The early development is greatly influenced by the gap in the resources they receive from parents, resulting in specific cognitive outcomes, emotional and behavioral issues, and economic choices in adulthood.
Changes in Family Behaviors
The demographic transition has led to different women trajectories with varying implications for children (McLanahan & Jacobsen, 2015). It is shown that children of college-educated mothers have more significant gains than those of less-educated mothers (McLanahan & Jacobsen, 2015). It implies that educated mothers are likely to gain employment, and all resources are transferred to their children. In contrast, uneducated mothers may have little access to resources to transfer to their children. The gap in children’s resources from their parents is influenced by family behaviors (Risman & Rutter, 2015). Risman and Rutter (2015) reiterate that the disparity in family behaviors significantly impacts children’s resources and economic prowess in adulthood. Inherently, parental and family support determines children’s progression in different sectors in the future.
The Widening Gap between Poor People and Rich People
The American dream is becoming impossible due to the widening gap between poor people and rich people in the US. Such inequality relates to social inequality that has entrenched into marriage and social family structure across the world. As the children from poor people grow to become adults, they have limited chances to acquire resources and opportunities, unlike their counterparts from wealthy families with complete access to abundant resources and great opportunities (McLanahan & Jacobsen, 2015). Social class plays a critical role in shaping children’s path to adulthood, and social inequality contributes immensely to this path’s divergence over time (Amato et al., 2016). The American dream is only achievable when a disparity in shaping children’s social classpath is reduced by fighting social inequality.
Childbearing Outside Marriage
Childbearing outside marriage is assumed to impact a child’s development enormously, and children access resources and opportunities as they grow to adulthood. The finding in the article states that women with the lowest educational level have the highest chance of having cohabiting births (McLanahan & Jacobsen, 2015). In contrast, women with the highest academic level have the lowest chance of outside childbearing marriage (McLanahan & Jacobsen, 2015). There are claims that children from the cohabiting union are likely to access limited resources as they grow to adulthood due low educational level of their mothers (Amato et al., 2016). Hence, outside childbearing marriage can negatively affect cognitive outcomes and economic choices in adulthood.
Conclusion
The synthesis and evaluation of this article are based on evidence around changes in family behaviors, inequality, and outside childbearing marriage. These issues have greatly influenced the gap in accessing resources and opportunities among children, leading to particular cognitive, emotional, and behavioral outcomes and economic choices in adulthood. The evidence elucidates a vital relationship between levels of education and mediating issues of poverty, parenting, income, and child outcomes. Eventually, the synthesis and evaluation considered the effects of the evidence of diverging destinies, positing that arguments are somehow simplistic and may not reflect a sufficient evidence base.
References
Amato, P. R., Booth, A., McHale, S. M., & Van Hook, J. (2016). Families in an era of increasing inequality. Springer International Pu.
McLanahan, S., & Jacobsen, W. (2015). Diverging destinies revisited. In Families in an era of increasing inequality (pp. 3-23). Springer, Cham.
Risman, B. J., & Rutter, V. (Eds.). (2015). Families as they really are. WW Norton.