Recession hurts poor most in long term.

• Position: Life in America

The Great Recession may be having some longer-term effects on low-income families and children, including poorer test scores and more single-parent homes, posits Christina Davis, assistant professor at the School of Public Policy at Duke University, Durham, N.C.

Davis has examined low-income couples' perceptions of financial prerequisites for marriage and parenthood, and found that people believe that marriage, but not children, requires money. One possible outcome of the recession may be that fewer pregnant women marry. "This may seem inconsistent, because it can be expensive to raise children, but we find that people believe they need money before they get married, but they don't necessarily need money before they have a child."

Her research also suggests that an economic recession will not deter women from having an out-of-wed-lock birth because, when jobs are scarce, women have less to forgo by having a...