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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. 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.
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    Cited by:

    1. Francesconi, Marco & Muthoo, Abhinay, 2003. "An Economic Model of Child Custody," IZA Discussion Papers 857, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    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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