This KIDS COUNT special report focuses on the state of Arkansas' families, using state and national data to discuss demographic and economic changes facing families and the ways those changes affect children. The report discusses the increase in the number of children nationally and statewide growing up in homes without fathers, and notes that the single-parent family phenomenon cuts across all ages, races, and geographic areas. Births to unmarried mothers now comprise 32 percent of total births and 69 percent of black births; however, unwed motherhood is not limited to any age group. Many single-parent families have fewer resources than two-parent families. Families without fathers have been linked to child poverty, which is currently at its highest level in Arkansas in 20 years. Reasons for increasing poverty include declining real incomes, the loss or uncertainty of key safety net programs due to welfare reform, rising costs of basic services, and racial and regional differences in employment opportunities. The report concludes by noting that Arkansas families have changed in complex ways, and that many popular impressions regarding family structure, income, and welfare are not based in fact. The report maintains that understanding the difficult circumstances of single-parent families is necessary to develop solutions that can help to solve problems, rather than further harm families who are most at risk. (Contains 37 references.) (KB)