Absent fathers, absent siblings: Two sides of lone parenthood for children

Children in lone parent families typically experience not only parental absence but also sibling absence: they are more likely to be sole offspring or to have fewer siblings than children of stable unions. Previous research has looked at these factors separately and suggests that they might work in opposite directions: negative effects on children’s development of parental absence (i.e. reduced supply of parenting) might be counter-balanced by positive effects of having fewer siblings (i.e. reduced demand for parenting). These patterns also have implications for social inequalities: union instability is more common among lower SES families and its fertility-limiting effects are also likely to be similarly stratified. This would tend to modify the historic association between lower SES and higher fertility, with resulting compositional effects on the population of vulnerable children. This paper explores these issues using data on nine year-old children and their families drawn from the Growing Up in Ireland survey. The findings confirm the sibling absence effect of union instability, the social gradient in that effect and tendency of sibling absence to counterbalance the negative parenting effect of union instability. The conclusion reached is that parental absence and lower sibling numbers should be recognised as two sides of lone parenthood for children and should both be taken into account in assessing the impact of lone parenthood on children.