while family structure cannot account for rising poverty rates over time or differences across countries it is clear that in many countries a strong association between family type and poverty exists the extent to which this relationship is causal is unclear for two reasons firstly groups such as lone parents or teenage mothers may have a greater risk of being poor not because of their family status per se but because they have other characteristics such as low educational attainment and low employment rates secondly family structures may also be a consequence of poverty