Parents and children

childbearing

• nearly half of all children are now born outside marriage, however nearly all are jointly registered by both parents and in most cases the parents are cohabiting

• women are having children later and are having fewer children

• more women are also remaining childless

reasons for the changes in childbearing

• a decline in stigma and increase in cohabitation

lone parent families - patterns

• now make up 24% of all families with children

• about 90% are headed by lone mothers

• from early 1990s, single (never married) women were the biggest group of lone mothers

• a child living with a lone parent is twice as likely to be in poverty as a child living with two parents

reasons for the changes in lone parent families

numbers have risen because of the increase in divorce and separation, and due to the increase of never-married women having children. - linked to the decline in stigma attached to births outside marriage

usually headed by women for multiple reasons;

• the widespread belief that women are by nature suited to an expressive role

• divorce courts usually give custody of children to mothers

• men may be less willing than women to give up work to care for children

single by choice - lone parent families

many are female headed because the mothers are single by choice. they may not wish to cohabit or marry, or want to limit the fathers’ involvement with the child

professional women can often afford to do this and many working class women chose to live on welfare benefits without a partner, often because they had experienced abuse

lone parenthood, the welfare state and poverty

Murray (new right thinker) sees the growth of lone parent families as resulting from an over-generous welfare state providing benefits for unmarried mothers and their children

argues that this has created ‘perverse incentive’ - rewards irresponsible behaviour, such as having children without being able to provide for them, creating a dependency culture where people assume that the state will support them and their children

Murray - solution to the welfare dependency

to abolish welfare benefits, to reduce the dependency culture that encourages birth outside marriage

arguing that welfare benefits are far from generous and lone parent families are much more likely to be in poverty

• lack of affordable childcare prevents many lone parents from working - more likely to be unemployed

• inadequate welfare benefits

• most lone parents are women, who generally earn less than men

• failure of fathers to pay maintenance, especially if they have a second family to support

changes in stepfamilies

• aka reconstituted families, account for over 10% of all families with dependent children in Britain

• in 85%, at least one child is from the women’s previous relationship, but only 11% from the man, 4% both

• at greater risk of poverty

• may face issues of divided loyalties and contact with the non-resident parent can cause tensions

reasons for the changing patterns in stepfamilies

• formed when lone parents form new partnerships, so factors causing an increase in lone parents also cause more stepfamilies - divorce, separation

• more children are from the women because when marriages and cohabitations break up, the children are more likely to stay with the mother

• stepparents are at grater risk of poverty because there may be more children and the father may have to support children from a previous family