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The Increasing Complexity of Family Relationships: Lifetime Experience of Lone Motherhood and Stepfamilies in Great Britain

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  • John Ermisch

    (University of Essex)

  • Marco Francesconi

    (University of Essex)

Abstract

We investigate the lifetime incidence and duration oflone motherhood and stepfamilies in Great Britainusing both retrospective and panel informationcontained in the British Household Panel Survey,1991–1995. We find that about 40 per cent of motherswill spend some time as a lone-parent. The duration oflone parenthood is often short, one-half remaininglone-mothers for 4.6 years or less. Aboutthree-fourths of these lone-mothers will form astepfamily, with 80 per cent of these stepfamiliesbeing started by cohabitation and 85 percent followingthe dissolution of a union. Stepfamilies are not verystable: over one-quarter dissolve within one year.Thus, an increasing proportion of today's youngchildren in Britain are likely to experience thechanges, tensions and strains which life inlone-parent families and stepfamilies often entails.The increasing complexity of inter-householdrelationships between children and parents hasimportant implications for the relevance oftheoretical views of the operation of the family putforward by social researchers.

Suggested Citation

  • John Ermisch & Marco Francesconi, 2000. "The Increasing Complexity of Family Relationships: Lifetime Experience of Lone Motherhood and Stepfamilies in Great Britain," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 16(3), pages 235-249, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:eurpop:v:16:y:2000:i:3:d:10.1023_a:1026589722060
    DOI: 10.1023/A:1026589722060
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. John Ermisch & Marco Francesconi, 2000. "Cohabitation in Great Britain: not for long, but here to stay," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 163(2), pages 153-171.
    2. Del Boca, Daniela & Flinn, Christopher J, 1995. "Rationalizing Child-Support Decisions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(5), pages 1241-1262, December.
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    6. Weiss, Yoram & Willis, Robert J, 1985. "Children as Collective Goods and Divorce Settlements," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(3), pages 268-292, July.
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    8. Larry Bumpass & R. Raley & James Sweet, 1995. "The changing character of stepfamilies: implications of cohabitation and nonmarital childbearing," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 32(3), pages 425-436, August.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Hannah Zagel, 2015. "Understanding Differences in Labour Market Attachment of Single Mothers in Great Britain and West Germany," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 773, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    3. Zagel, Hannah, 2015. "Understanding differences in labour market attachment of single mothers in Great Britain and West Germany," Working papers of the ZeS 03/2015, University of Bremen, Centre for Social Policy Research (ZeS).

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