Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2022
Advisor
Amber Todd
Abstract
The objective of this paper is to examine how a child living in a single-parent home is able to interact with healthcare in the state of Tennessee in 2020. Family structure in the United States trends away from the nuclear family, with 32% of households containing children headed by single-parents in 2018 as recorded by the United States Census Bureau. Given the knowledge that children in single-parent families are at higher risk for unmet healthcare needs, it is prudent to determine whether these trends are mirrored in Tennessee. Tests of statistical analysis were conducted on publicly available data collected from the County Health Rankings website. The percentage of children living in single-parent homes has increased from 30.88% in 2011 to 32.99% in 2020. There is a correlation between the percentage of children living in single-parent households and the percentage of disconnected youths and childhood mortality rates for 2020 in Tennessee counties. However, there is no correlation between the percentage of single-parent homes and the percentage of uninsured children for the same counties in 2020. Tennessee counties with high and low percentages of single-parent families are not significantly different in measures of access to a primary care physician, preventable hospital stays, and flu vaccination.
Repository Citation
Balcer, M. (2022). The Interaction of Children Living in Single-Parent Households with Healthcare in Tennessee. Wright State University. Dayton, Ohio.
