The Back Bay is better known as an upscale playground, a place where the well-heeled meet for martinis at Sonsie's, spend the afternoon at day spas, and shop at Emporio Armani. But this section of the city has another surprising distinction: It has the highest percentage of children being raised in two-parent households in all of Boston.
There aren't a lot of children here, only 233 out of a population of 4,908. But 91 percent of them live with both of their parents, newly released 2000 Census data reveal, an extraordinary concentration of two-parent households in a nation where more than a third of the children are being raised by only one parent.
The Back Bay is one of several Boston neighborhoods that is bucking a trend toward single-parent households. But, unlike the idealized middle-class family of the 1950s, the highest concentration of two-parent homes today tends to be upper middle class and predominantly white. Places where children were being raised by one parent, by comparison, tended to be poor and include a higher percentage of blacks and Latinos.
''The higher the household income, the lower the likelihood of divorce,'' said Kimberly A. Faust, assistant professor of sociology at Fitchburg State College. ''That seems to work backwards. You would think if you have more income you would be more likely to leave because you could support yourself.''
The median household income in the slice of the Back Bay roughly bounded by Marlborough, Arlington, Boylston, and Hereford streets was about $41,000 in 1990, compared to $36,000 for the state, the most recent data available. (2000 Census data on income will be released later this year.) In contrast, the tracts with the highest percent of single-parent households had median household incomes below $12,000.
Faust, who teaches a class called The Sociology of Divorce, said higher income couples tend to stay married in part because they tend to get married later, improving their chances of finding a compatible mate. Unlike people with only high school diplomas, who may marry in their late teens or early 20s, college-educated people tend to marry in their late 20s to early 30s.
Studies show that children who are raised in single-parent households tend to do worse in school, are more likely to drop out of high school, and are less likely to have successful relationships of their own. But much of that can be attributed to being raised in poor neighborhoods and having less access to good schools, said Nick Wolfinger, an assistant professor of human development and family studies at the University of Utah.
And though most of the neighborhoods with high percentages of two-parent households - which may include stepparents - are predominantly white, Faust argues that income plays a bigger role. Sociologists find that poor whites are as likely as poor blacks and Latinos to be raised in single-parent households. It's just that blacks and Latinos are disproportionately represented in the ranks of the poor.
However, income is not the only factor in keeping couples together. There is one section of Brighton where 87 percent of the children live with both parents, even though the income level is on par with parts of Roxbury.
That is Boston Census Tract 4.01, a place where strollers and bicycles fill front lawns and where the streets are lined with late-model cars. The emphasis is on shared religious values and family, rather than on wealth, and for good reason: a majority of the people who live here are Orthodox Jews, a group that has swelled in the past decade.
In income and household size, they mirror the working-class communities of South Boston and Dorchester of the 1950s. Just like the predominantly Irish-American families Boston knew 40 years ago, the Orthodox families are huge, and the parents don't make a lot of money. But the focus is on raising children.
''This is a community where people support one another,'' said Shaina Rahmani, a 40-year-old Hasidic woman who has been married for 16 years and has eight children. ''The value is on the kids and education we want to give them.''
Suri and Dovid Winkler attribute the success of their marriage to their faith. Suri, who is 30, and Dovid, 32, married nine years, have five children, and they plan on having more. It's tough considering they live on the $33,000 stipend he gets for studying oral law and the Torah at Kollel of Greater Boston, an Orthodox Jewish teaching and research center that opened in 1990.
Kollel has attracted dozens of Orthodox families from New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania to the area.
''The conservative and reform Jews moved to the suburbs. It's an exodus that began in the 1960s and continues today,'' said Ted Schneider, the cantor at Temple B'nai Moshe.
That's why this slice of Brighton has one of the highest rates of children per family: 1.93. The median is 1.57.
In the Back Bay, it's 1.45. On leafy Marlborough Street, Sidney Boucher-Katz, 41, lives in a brownstone with her husband of 14 years and their two daughers. Their girls attend Kingsley Montessori School two blocks away.
''I've never really thought we would move,'' Boucher-Katz said. ''We obviously couldn't send our kids to Boston public schools. But this is a fine neighborhood to raise children.''
On the weekends, they usually flee the city for Loon Mountain in New Hampshire, where they have a condo. But during the week, Boucher-Katz takes her children on a warm afternoon to the park on Commonwealth Avenue, or they head to the Ben & Jerry's on Newbury Street. As a rule, they eat dinner together every night at the same time: 7 p.m.
Life is a lot different on D Street in South Boston, an area that has the highest percentage of children not living with both parents: 84 percent. This area is home to the D Street public housing complex run by the Boston Housing Authority.
There are lots of children here, but not a lot of dads, said Gail Buccieri, who lives in the complex with her three children. Unlike most of the other women here, she is widowed. ''Most of the men are irresponsible, or they are in jail,'' said Buccieri, who grew up in South Boston.
Her children - Ross, 14, Kimberly, 12, and Kayla, 6 - attend Boston public schools and, after school, the two older ones go to the Boys & Girls Club.
''I'm living on survivor's benefits and it's not enough to raise three kids,'' she said. But now that Kayla is in kindergarten, Buccieri says she will be able to go out and start working. Unlike many of the women here, Buccieri isn't alone, though. She has her mother, who lives with her. ''I don't know how I'd do it without her.''