Utilization of child health services by children in single-parent and two-parent families.

With the increase in single-parent families, questions have been raised concerning the adequacy of the access to care for children residing in these families. A year of visits to primary health care sources are compared for a random sample of elementary school children residing with one of two-parent families. Contrary to expectations concerning the medical disenfranchisement of single-parent children when socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and children and youth project enrollment are controlled, no differences are found in use/nonuse of facilities or range of visits. Further studies should take into account parental employment as a separate and possibly more important factor than number of parents in the home when studying use of pediatric services.