Wednesday, November 5, 1986/The Battalion/Page 9
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6% of American families
headed by single parents
■ WASHINGTON (AP) — More
Regf thm one-fourth of American fami-
USFlK s with children — and more than
No. :R) percent of those that are black —
■ere headed by a single parent last
■ar, the Census Bureau reported
cem Tuesday.
wouka “One of the most significant
ithhrci anges in family composition over
i cul the' past 15 years has been the sub-
thtoflt.intial growth in the number of
lerei one-parent families,” the bureau
id wil'd-
I Dr. Harriet P. McAdoo, a profes-
■r of social work at Howard Univer-
Hty. said a major factor is that
■omen are having children and get-
f ting married later — or not marry-
i|g at all — and that marriages are
more likely to end in divorce.
■ As a result of these changes, she
rs [ o said, “children are being raised by
mtwBeir mothers for a significant num-
Supr ber of years of their lives.”
In addition, she said in an inter-
isesfo vjew, there are a substantial number
iptioit
in 1
of out-of-wedlock pregnancies
among both black and white women.
A separate Census Bureau report
on fertility last June said 20.2 per
cent of white births and 74.5 percent
among blacks were out of wedlock
last year, as the stigma surrounding
unwed mothers lessens.
Researchers at The Urban Insti
tute suggested that young women
are no longer rushing into wedlock
once they become pregnant. In
stead, they are considering their fu
tures, including whether the father
is good potential husband material
and how marriage will affect their
educational and economic outlook.
Of 33.4 million families with chil
dren last year, 8.8 million — 26.3
percent — were one-parent groups,
compared with 12.9 percent in 1970,
the bureau said.
The report said 60.1 percent of
black families with children were
maintained by a single parent, up
from 35.7 percent 15 years earlier.
For whites, 20.8 percent had one
parent, more than double the 10.1
percent of 1970.
The overwhelming majority of
single-parent families are headed by
women, accounting for 4.9 million
of the 5.7 million white, single-par
ent families and 2.6 million of the
2.8 million that are black.
While still growing, the rate of in
crease has eased somewhat.
Single-parent families jumped by
48.7 percent from 1970 to 1975, but
rose by 26.9 percent from 1980 to
1985.
Among blacks, the rate of increase
declined from 55.5 percent to 32.5
percent. Among whites, the growth
rate eased from 44.2 percent to 23.4
percent in the two Five-year periods.
Dr. McAdoo said much of this
fading increase is a result of the ag
ing of the post-World War II “baby
boom” generation.
up
laiF
j us !
Lay group
blasts Catholic
statement
NEW YORK (AP) — A pro-
j posed bishops’ statement on the
I U.S. economy is conf used about
economic rights and puts too
much emphasis on the state to
Hielp the poor, a prominent Ro-
i man Catholic lay group said
Tuesday.
The critique came a week be
fore the bishops are to take final
action on their widely discussed
pastoral letter, “Economic Justice
| for All.”
Calling the letter one-sided,
the lay group said the bishops
“turn too readily to the state to di
rect economic activism, to create
jobs, to determine foreign aid.”
The lay critics also denounced
the bishops’ call for money to be
diverted from defense spending.
It is “seriously misleading” for the
bishops to favor this “without say
ing how we could do so without
making ourselves and our allies
vulnerable to military blackmail
or worse,” they said.
An underlying theme of the
letter “appears to be a vision, not
of justice based on liberty, but of
an equality of income and
wealth,” the critics said.
“That concept of equality is in
compatible with respect for liber
ty,” they said.
Chromosome defect
shows link to dyslexia
PHILADELPHIA (AP) —A form
of dyslexia that may affect one out of
every 100 Americans has been
linked to an inherited chromosome
defect, researchers said Tuesday.
Based on a study of 16 families
with a history of dyslexia, scientists
concluded that one out of three in
herited cases of the reading disorder
is linked to a defect on chromosome
15, one of the 23 paired chromo
somes that carry human genes.
The finding, published in con
junction with the annual meeting of
the American Society of Human Ge
netics in Philadelphia, should allow
better detection of afflicted individ
uals, said Herbert Lubs of the Uni
versity of Miami, one of the study’s
authors.
“In a few years, we could probably
predict at birth which child will have
dyslexia,” Lubs said in an interview.
Such children could then be given
special training to help them cope
with the disorder, in which the brain
seems unable to correctly process se
ries of letters or numbers. Although
dyslexics are of normal intelligence,
they often fall behind in school or
are misdiagnosed as learning im
paired, he said.
The finding is also important be
cause of the light it sheds on the
workings of the brain, Lubs said.
“It enables you to show that one
gene is affecting a specific brain
function and its development,” he
said.
Lubs said he believes that most
dyslexia is inherited, but researchers
do not know that for certain.
Among Americans who suffered
from dyslexia were President Wood-
row Wilson and Vice President Nel
son Rockefeller.
Dr. Albert Galaburda, a neurolog
ist at the Harvard Medical School
who studies dyslexia, agreed that
most dyslexia is inherited.
But he said it is wrong to assume
therefore that there is a specific gene
that causes dyslexia.
“It may be there is a gene that sets
up changes to make a brain vulnera
ble and let it show dyslexia under
certain circumstances,” he said.
Galaburda estimated about 10
million to 20 million Americans, suf
fer from what can strictly be called
dyslexia.
Some estimates say that dyslexia
strikes as many as 15 percent of
Americans, Galaburda said, but
those estimates include children for
whom the reading disability is part
of a larger problem of learning disa
bilities.
James Kavanagh of the govern
ment’s National Institute of Child
Health and Human Development in
Bethesda, Md., said that heredity
“surely doesn’t account for all read
ing failure, but it does account for
some.”
Proposals from Mexican leader
suggest change in election laws
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Sweeping
political reform proposals presented
Tuesday by President Miguel de la
Madrid would allow opposition par
es to gain at least 50 seats in the
Chamber of Deputies, although
one ever could win a majority.
The proposals de la Madrid of
fered to the Chamber would assure
that his Institutional Revolutionary
Party, or PRI, retains the control it
has had since the party was founded
in 1929.
The revisions, if approved as ex
acted by the PRI-dominated Con-
ress, would revise Mexico’s election
ode for the first time since 1978
vhen the Chamber was expanded by
00 seats reserved for minority par-
|ies.
The chamber would be expanded
from 400 seats to 500 seats under
.the new proposals.
The conservative National Action
Party, or PAN, Mexico’s major op
position party, has charged for years
that Mexico’s election code and post
election grievance policy favors the
PRI.
PAN leaders were not available
for comment on the proposals Tues
day, a spokeswoman at party head
quarters said. But the Excelsior na
tional news service quoted
opposition leaders generally as dis
missing the revisions, saying the pro
posals “cannot be called political re
forms because they benefit only the
PRI.”
Under de la Madrid’s plan, 300 of
the 500 seats in the lower house of
Congress would be reserved for can
didates winning a majority in their
districts.
1 he other 200 seats would be dis
tributed proportionally among all
registered political parties. The PRI
could win as many as 50 of those.
But the plan states that “the ma
jority party (the PRI) will at no time
lose the majority in the Chamber of
Deputies.”
The PRI controls the 100-seat
Senate, the Chamber of Deputies, all
31 governorships and the presi
dency.
De la Madrid’s proposals, offered
during a time of widespread crit
icism of the ruling party, especially
in the northern states where the
PAN has more strength, would re
quire the use of transparent ballot
boxes instead of the cardboard or
translucent boxes now used in most
elections.
Off
Campus
Aggies
GENERAL
MEETING
WED., NOV. 5
6:30 PM
102ZACHRY
Take a study break!!
Come to MSC Political Forum’s
GENERAL MTG
Wednesday, Nov. 5
8:30 p.m.
502 Rudder
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