Events
Brown Bag Seminar: Matt Brooks
PSC’s Brown Bag seminar series typically convenes Mondays at noon, at ISR Thompson Room 1430, and on Zoom.
Matt Brooks of Florida State University joins us Oct. 20, 2025.
Unexpected Changes in Rural Families: Fewer Married Parents, Lower Child Poverty
Abstract: Historically children who live in rural America have faced much higher rates of poverty than their urban peers, and mounting evidence of falling marriage rates across rural areas has led to concerns that rural-urban poverty disparities may have continued to grow. Yet, new methods of measuring poverty, recent increases in Child Tax Credits, and growing opportunities for rural women challenge this assumption and notions about the relationship between family structure and poverty. Here I investigate the rise of nonmarital family types in rural America since 2000, and explore how this has affected rural-urban economic disparities and the penalties faced by nonmarital rural families after two decades of economic and epidemiological shocks. By 2023, significantly more rural than urban children live in nonmarital families; simultaneously, rural poverty rates declined significantly. Further, although rural children living in nonmarital families faced greater poverty penalties than urban children at the turn of the millennium, post-Covid these penalties had diminished with the elevated poverty penalties for rural children having disappeared. These findings not only affect our understanding of who is poor in rural America but also how to further reduce child poverty nationally.
Bio: Matt Brooks is the Charles B. Nam Assistant Professor in the Sociology of Population at Florida State University. Dr. Brooks serves as the Associate Director of FSU’s Center for Demography and Population Health. His area of expertise relates to the social and family demography of rural America, and his research strives to understand the causes and consequences of population change on rural-urban disparities in poverty, health, and well-being. Recent projects of Dr. Brooks’ have examined the uneven geographic impacts of Medicaid expansion on mortality, the rise of nonmarital childbirth among rural women, and growing racial diversity in the United States.
https://umich.zoom.us/j/954186
Meeting ID: 954 1861 0585
Passcode: 818420
One tap mobile
+13017158592,,95418610585# US (Washington DC)
+13092053325,,95418610585# US
Dial by your location
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 309 205 3325 US
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
+1 646 931 3860 US
+1 564 217 2000 US
+1 669 444 9171 US
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 719 359 4580 US
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 386 347 5053 US
+1 647 374 4685 Canada
+1 647 558 0588 Canada
+1 778 907 2071 Canada
+1 780 666 0144 Canada
+1 204 272 7920 Canada
+1 438 809 7799 Canada
+1 587 328 1099 Canada
Meeting ID: 954 1861 0585
Find your local number: https://umich.zoom.us/
Join by SIP
[email protected]
Join by H.323
162.255.37.11 (US West)
162.255.36.11 (US East)
115.114.131.7 (India Mumbai)
115.114.115.7 (India Hyderabad)
213.19.144.110 (Amsterdam Netherlands)
213.244.140.110 (Germany)
103.122.166.55 (Australia Sydney)
103.122.167.55 (Australia Melbourne)
149.137.40.110 (Singapore)
64.211.144.160 (Brazil)
149.137.68.253 (Mexico)
69.174.57.160 (Canada Toronto)
65.39.152.160 (Canada Vancouver)
207.226.132.110 (Japan Tokyo)
149.137.24.110 (Japan Osaka)
Meeting ID: 954 1861 0585
Passcode: 818420