Profile of the Householders of Adopted Children and Stepchildren

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This is an html transcription of the original Special Report document, authored by Rose M. Kreider, which can be found on the Census Bureau Web site in .pdf format at www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/censr-6.pdf.

Household Income and Educational Attainment of the Householder

Table 7 profiles children by the socioeconomic characteristics of the householder. Adoptive mothers have been found to be more educated and to have higher incomes than biological mothers.³⁷ Census 2000 data support these findings and show that, for children under 18, adopted children lived in households that had higher incomes than those of either stepchildren or biological children. One-third of adopted children under 18 lived in households with incomes of $75,000 or more, compared with 25 percent of stepchildren and 27 percent of biological children. Eight percent of adopted children under 18 lived in households with incomes of $150,000 or more, higher than either stepchildren (4 percent) or biological children (6 percent).

Comparing median household income for these groups is another way to consider their relative affluence. While the median household income for adopted children under 18 ($56,000) was higher than that of both biological children ($48,000) and stepchildren ($51,000), among children of the householder who were 18 years old and over, stepchildren had the highest household incomes, at about $68,000, compared with $62,000 for adopted children, and $58,000 for biological children.

Adopted children also lived with householders who were more educated than the householders of either stepchildren or biological children (see Figure 6). Eighteen percent of adopted children under 18 lived with a householder with a bachelor's degree, compared with 16 percent of biological children and 11 percent of stepchildren. While 15 percent of adopted children under 18 lived with a householder with at least a graduate or professional school degree, just 10 percent of biological children and 5 percent of stepchildren did.

Labor Force and Homeownership

The labor force participation rates of the householder of adopted and biological children under 18 were roughly similar. 84 percent of adopted children and 86 percent of biological children lived with a householder who was in the labor force. A slightly higher percentage of stepchildren lived with a householder who was in the labor force: 90 percent. Among children of householders in the labor force, a slightly lower percentage of adopted children (3.1 percent) lived with householders who were unemployed than stepchildren (3.5 percent) or biological children (4.1 percent).

Another indicator of socioeconomic well being is whether a family owns its home. Again, adopted children appear to be in households which were economically more advantaged than those of stepchildren and biological children, since a higher percentage lived with householders who owned rather than rented their homes. While 78 percent of adopted children under 18 years old lived with householders who owned their homes, the corresponding percentage for both biological and stepchildren under 18 was 67 percent. For children 18 and over, the gap between percentage of adopted, biological, and stepchildren who lived in owned homes was smaller, but it was still 3 percentage points higher than for stepchildren and 5 percentage points higher than for biological children.

³⁷ Ibid.

Credits: CENSR-6
by Rose M. Kreider

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