IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/eurpop/v16y2000i3d10.1023_a1026589722060.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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

Author

Listed:
  • 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
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1023/A:1026589722060
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1023/A:1026589722060?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rosenzweig, Mark R & Wolpin, Kenneth I, 1994. "Parental and Public Transfers to Young Women and Their Children," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(5), pages 1195-1212, December.
    2. Robert Moffitt & Michael Rendall, 1995. "Cohort trends in the lifetime distribution of female family headship in the United States, 1968–1985," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 32(3), pages 407-424, August.
    3. 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.
    4. Rosenzweig, Mark R & Wolpin, Kenneth I, 1993. "Intergenerational Support and the Life-Cycle Incomes of Young Men and Their Parents: Human Capital Investments, Coresidence, and Intergenerational Financial Transfers," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 11(1), pages 84-112, January.
    5. Larry Bumpass & R. Raley, 1995. "Redefining single-parent families: Cohabitation and changing family reality," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 32(1), pages 97-109, February.
    6. 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.
    7. Del Boca, Daniela & Flinn, Christopher J, 1995. "Rationalizing Child-Support Decisions," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(5), pages 1241-1262, December.
    8. Robert Moffitt & Michael Rendall, 1995. "Erratum to: Cohort Trends in the Lifetime Distribution of Female Family Headship in the U.S., 1968–1985," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 32(4), pages 1-1, November.
    9. 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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Muthoo, Abhinay & Francesconi, Marco, 2003. "An Economic Model of Child Custody," CEPR Discussion Papers 4054, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    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).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Francesconi, Marco & Muthoo, Abhinay, 2003. "An Economic Model of Child Custody," IZA Discussion Papers 857, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Welling, Linda & Bearance, Marci, 2002. "Who's minding the kids? An economic comparison of sole and joint custody," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 15-29.
    3. Hanno Foerster, 2019. "The Impact of Post-Marital Maintenance on Dynamic Decisions and Welfare of Couples," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 982, Boston College Department of Economics.
    4. Marcassa Stefania, 2013. "Divorce laws and divorce rate in the US," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 13(1), pages 997-1035, August.
    5. Altonji Joseph G & Villanueva Ernesto, 2007. "The Marginal Propensity to Spend on Adult Children," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1-52, February.
    6. Daniela Del Boca, 2003. "Mothers, fathers and children after divorce: The role of institutions," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 16(3), pages 399-422, August.
    7. Frimmel, Wolfgang & Halla, Martin & Winter-Ebmer, Rudolf, 2024. "How does parental divorce affect children’s long-term outcomes?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 239(C).
    8. Steven J. Haider & Kathleen McGarry, 2005. "Recent Trends in Resource Sharing Among the Poor," NBER Working Papers 11612, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Cheolsung Park, 2014. "Why do children transfer to their parents? Evidence from South Korea," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 461-485, September.
    10. repec:pri:crcwel:wp06-28-ff is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Böheim, René & Francesconi, Marco & Halla, Martin, 2012. "Does Custody Law Affect Family Behavior In and Out of Marriage?," IZA Discussion Papers 7064, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Francesconi, Marco & Van Der Klaauw, Wilbert & Rainer, Helmut, 2008. "Unintended Consequences of Welfare Reform: The Case of Divorced Parents," CEPR Discussion Papers 7107, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    13. Francesconi, Marco & Muthoo, Abhinay, 2006. "Control Rights in Public-Private Partnerships," IZA Discussion Papers 2143, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Angela Greulich & Michael Rendall, 2014. "Multiple imputation for demographic hazard models with left-censored predictor variables," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-01298942, HAL.
    15. J.W.A.M. Steegmans & W.H.J. Hassink, 2015. "Decreasing house prices and household mobility: An empirical study on loss aversion and negative equity," Working Papers 15-12, Utrecht School of Economics.
    16. Steven Garasky & Daniel Meyer, 1996. "Reconsidering the increase in father-only families," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 33(3), pages 385-393, August.
    17. David Blanc & François-Charles Wolff, 2006. "Leaving Home in Europe: The Role of Parents’ and Children’s Incomes," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 53-73, March.
    18. Michael S. Rendall & Angela Greulich, 2016. "Multiple imputation for demographic hazard models with left-censored predictor variables: Application to employment duration and fertility in the EU-SILC," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 35(38), pages 1135-1148.
    19. John Ermisch & Chiara Pronzato, 2008. "Intra‐Household Allocation of Resources: Inferences from Non‐resident Fathers’ Child Support Payments," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(527), pages 347-362, March.
    20. Hanno Foerster, 2019. "Untying the Knot: How Child Support and Alimony Affect Couples' Decisions and Welfare," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2019_115v2, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    21. Christine Hauser, 2008. "Child Support Enforcement and Children's Consumption," 2008 Meeting Papers 630, Society for Economic Dynamics.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:eurpop:v:16:y:2000:i:3:d:10.1023_a:1026589722060. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.