The Changing Nature of Lone Parenthood and its Consequences

单亲家庭数量的增加是过去30年来出现的最重要的社会趋势之一。如今，每四个孩子中就有一个生活在单亲家庭，而在20世纪70年代末，这一比例仅为每20个孩子中就有一个。有时生活在单亲家庭中的儿童人数要多得多，因为对大多数儿童来说，这是一种过渡状态（平均持续时间约为5年），因此，据估计，所有儿童中有一半将至少在单亲家庭中生活一段时间。因此，今天单亲家庭可被视为家庭生活的正常组成部分，然而，尽管单亲家庭发生的频率很高，但它仍然与高失业率、贫困率和母亲抑郁症有关，而且人们普遍认为单亲家庭的儿童不如完整家庭的儿童。由于这些家庭在经济和社会上的脆弱性，25年来，他们一直是政策的核心。最近，人们认为，单亲与儿童依赖福利和不良结果有关，特别是与单亲抚养的年轻人的反社会行为有关，这被强调为采取干预措施的一个原因。然而，尽管政策制定者将单亲家庭视为一个问题，但大部分政策分析所依据的程式化事实未能认识到单亲家庭的范围变化速度之快，以及当今单亲家庭的流动性和多样性。因此，政策讨论的基础往往既过时又将单亲父母视为同质人口，并根据目前的家庭结构对其进行界定，而不是审查儿童面临的全部家庭历史。英国很少有经验证据表明单亲家庭已经发生了变化，或者单亲家庭的增长（在某种程度上，它现在是一种社会规范）可能改变了评估其对父母和子女后果的证据基础。在英国，关于单亲与母亲及其子女的不良结果之间的因果关系程度的证据也令人惊讶地少之又少--如果单亲父母与孩子的父亲在一起，贫困水平和子女的结果（包括学业成绩、行为问题等）将受到何种影响，这个问题还没有得到回答。该项目将通过检查长期跟踪个人的数据来填补学术文献中的这一重大空白。我们将研究1958年、1970年和2000年出生的孩子（及其父母）的轨迹，看看随着时间的推移单亲经历的变化及其后果。我们将解决的问题包括：单亲家庭的经历如何导致父母和孩子的轨迹发生变化？有没有一套“典型”的路线，可以确定的单亲？这些路线对父母和孩子的结果有影响吗？特征，如先前的关系的长度，重新合作的时间（继父母）和时间的长度，个人花费作为单亲父母，将进行分析，以确定“类型学”的单亲，并从这个我们将评估儿童的结果是如何受到这些特征的影响。一些单亲家庭的一个特别重要的特点可能是多个伙伴关系的过渡。在美国，这被认为是一些单亲家庭的孩子表现不佳的一个特别重要的原因。我们将评估英国对此的证据。最后，我们将研究单亲人口是否变得更加多样化，以及单亲家庭之间的不平等是否正在增加。例如，随着单亲成为一种更为普遍的经历，它是否也是一种日益不平等的经历，一些母亲过得很好，保留了工作并得到抚养费，而另一些母亲则在努力避免贫困。

The increased number of lone-parent families is one of the most significant social trends to have occurred over the last thirty years. Today one-in-four children live in a lone-parent family compared to just one 1-in-20 in the late 1970s. The numbers of children that will at some time live in a lone-parent family are much higher, as for most it is a transitory state (the average duration being around 5 years), and therefore it is estimated that half of all children will spend at least some time in a lone-parent family. Today therefore lone-parent families can be considered a normal part of family life.Yet, in spite of its frequency, lone-parenthood remains associated with high rates of joblessness, poverty and maternal depression and children in lone-parent families are widely considered to do less well than those from intact families. Because of the economic and social vulnerability of these families they have been at the heart of policy for over 25 years. Recently the perceived association of lone-parenthood with welfare reliance and poor outcomes for children, particularly in relation to anti-social behaviour among young people brought up by a lone-parent, has been emphasized as a reason for interventions. Yet while for policy makers lone parenthood is seen as a problem the stylised facts on which much of policy analysis has been based, fails to recognise the extraordinary pace of change in the extent of lone-parenthood and the fluidity and diversity of lone-parent families today. Hence the basis for policy discussions is all too often both dated and treats lone-parents as a homogeneous population and defines them on the basis on current family structure, rather than examining the full family history faced by children. There is very little empirical evidence for the UK on how lone-parenthood has changed, or on how the growth in lone-parenthood (to the extent that it is now a social norm) may have changed the evidence base for assessing its consequences for parents and children. There is also surprising little evidence for the UK on the extent to which the relationship between lone-parenthood and poor outcomes, for mothers and their children, is causal - the question of how, if lone parents had remained with their child's father, poverty levels and children's outcomes (including academic achievements, behavioural problems and so on) would be affected has not been answered. This project will fill this substantial gap in the academic literature by examining data from that tracks individuals over time. We will examine the trajectories of children (and their parents) born in 1958; 1970 and 2000, looking at changes in the experience of lone parenthood over time and in its consequences. Questions we will address include: How does the experience of lone-parenthood leads to a shift in the trajectories of both parents and children? Are there a set of "typical" routes into lone parenthood that can be identified? And do these routes matter to parent and child outcomes? Characteristics, such as the length of preceding relationships, time to re-partnering (step-parenthood) and the length of time individuals spend as lone parents, will be analyzed to identify "typologies" of lone parenthood and from this we will assess how outcomes for children are affected by these characteristics. A particularly important feature of some lone parent families may be multiple partnership transitions. In the US this has been found to be a particularly important reason for children doing less well in some lone parent families. We will assess UK evidence for this. Finally, we will examine whether the lone parent population is becoming more diverse and whether inequality between lone parent families is increasing. For example, as lone-parenthood has become a much more common experience is it also an increasingly unequal experience with some mothers doing well, retaining work and receiving maintenance, while others struggle to avoid poverty.