Explaining Variation in Income between Hispanic and White Female-Headed Households in Washington

Despite concern about the low incomes offemale-headedfamilies, comparatively little research has been conducted on Hispanic-origin, female-headedfamilies. The authors consider the relationship of variables from past studies (employment, personal characteristics, and the presence of children) to the incomes of White (non-Hispanic origin) and Hispanic-origin, female-headedfamilies with children. They also consider the effect of two additional variables representing contentious political issues-citizenship and whether the household used English as its primary language. Confirming past research, employment variables had the strongest relationship to income for both groups. The number and presence of children younger than 6 were not as important, and marital status showed little relationship to income once age and education were included in a multiple regression equation. More interesting is the fact that citizenship and English usage made little difference in the above relationships for Hispanic-origin, female-headed families.