An increasing prevalence of the nuclear family has been tied to processes of industrialization, urbanization, westernization and capitalist development (Goode 1963) and the apparent decline of the nuclear family to post-industrial processes. But in some situations, such as migrant labour regimes in southern Africa, or the conditions imposed by contemporary structural adjustment prescriptions, capitalist development […]

Ethnicity is probably of lesser importance in explaining variable patterns of lone parenthood in Zambia than in the UK, though some variation is associated with diverse matrilineal or patrilineal traditions characterizing various tribal and ethnic groups. A more important dimension of internal differentiation in parenting and household formation is the rural-urban divide, in consequence both […]

Data reviewed by Haskey on the prevalence of lone-parent families by geographical area within the UK suggest that higher rates apply in urban than in rural areas, with an indicative contrast of 36.7 per cent in inner London, 19.2 per cent in outer London and 12.4 per cent in Surrey (Haskey 1994:13). The differences may […]

Within Europe there are many diverse patterns of marriage, parenting and household formation, as suggested by the cases of Norway, the former Czechoslovakia and the UK—though none of these is necessarily representative of a distinct ‘type’. Czechoslovakia, along with a number of other eastern European countries is characterized by earlier child-bearing than elsewhere in Europe […]

A different pattern from either Barbados or Bangladesh appears to apply, at least at the aggregate level, in both Japan and Singapore, where very few women under the age of 20 years either enter into marriage or have children. In many cases in East and Southeast Asia recent decades have seen progressive and rather substantial […]

As illustrated in Table 4.1, the case of Bangladesh contrasts markedly with that of Barbados. In the former, childbirth comes relatively early and almost exclusively within the confines of marriage, which occurs early for women7 and, according to Duza (1989:127,140), is virtually universal, with unmarried women generally being considered redundant. Of females aged 20 to […]

There is considerable variability among Caribbean states, with the proportion of all households headed by single females ranging from 1.8 per cent in Cuba to 28.9 per cent in St Vincent and the Grenadines (United Nations 1989). But within the mixture of prevailing forms, one significant strand involves mothers and female kin assuming the most […]

Problems with data are immediately encountered when trying to answer the question of how common single or lone parenting really is. Statistics that bear most closely on the issue of parenting relate variously to marital status of parent (s), residence, and head of household, although recourse to these or some combination of them immediately conflates […]

Carolyn Baylies The percentage of single female-parent homes is featured in a table entitled ‘weakening social fabric’ in the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Report 1994, alongside such other measures of presumed social dissolution as intentional homicides by men, asylum applications received, and juveniles as percentage of total prisoners. Data in the table refer […]

Nation states in the developed world are finding the cost of welfare programmes hard to meet, and are alarmed by the speed and scale with which these costs are projected to rise. In this context, the debate about the family is one of the mechanisms through which states are seeking to redefine the relationship between […]