The Educational Homogamy Gap Between Married and Cohabiting Couples in Latin America

The explosive expansion of non-marital cohabitation in Latin America since the 1970s has led to the narrowing of the gap in educational homogamy between married and cohabiting couples (what we call “homogamy gap”) as shown by our analysis of 29 census samples encompassing eight countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, and Panama (N = 2,295,160 young couples). Most research on the homogamy gap is limited to a single decade and a small group of developed countries (the United States, Canada, and Europe). We take a historical and cross-national perspective and expand the research to a range of developing countries, where since early colonial times, traditional forms of cohabitation among the poor, uneducated sectors of society have coexisted with marriage, although to widely varying degrees from country to country. In recent decades, cohabitation is emerging in all sectors of society. We find that among married couples, educational homogamy continues to be higher than for those who cohabit, but in recent decades, the difference has narrowed substantially in all countries. We argue that assortative mating between cohabiting and married couples tends to be similar when the contexts in which they are formed are also increasingly similar.     

Married-Couple Families With Step,Adopted, and Biological Children

National estimates of the numbers of families with step, adopted, and biological children have not previously been developed. In this work, parent types for children in married-couple families were indirectly identified by using marriage and birth dates. Families were then classified by the types of children present. A large majority (79 percent) had only biological children; however, a significant minority (16 percent) had at least one stepchild and 4 percent had at least one adopted child. This analysis provides national estimates of the numbers and characteristics of married-couple families with step, adopted, and biological children.     

Do Cross-National Differences in the Costs of Children Generate Cross-National Differences in Fertility Rates?

Parity-specific probabilities of having a next birth are estimated from national fertility data and are compared with nation-specific costs of having children as measured by time-budget data, by attitude data from the International Social Survey Program, and by panel data on labor earnings and standard of living changes following a birth. We focus on five countries (the United States, the former West Germany, Denmark, Italy, and the United Kingdom), whose fertility rates span the observed fertility range in the contemporary industrialized world and whose social welfare and family policies span the conceptual space of standard welfare-state typologies. Definitive conclusions are difficult because of the multiple dimensions on which child costs can be measured, the possibility that child costs affect both the quantum and the tempo of fertility, the relatively small fertility differences across industrialized nations, and the inherent small-N problem resulting from nation-level comparisons. Empirical analysis, however, supports the assertion that institutionally driven child costs affect the fertility patterns of industrialized nations.     

Union Transitions Following the Birth of a Child to Cohabiting Parents

Despite a growing interest in the family trajectories of unmarried women, there has been limited research on union transitions among cohabiting parents. Using data from the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth, we examined how family complexity (including relationship and fertility histories), as well as characteristics of the union and birth, were associated with transitions to marriage or to separation among 1,105 women who had a birth in a cohabiting relationship. Cohabiting parents had complex relationship and fertility histories, which were tied to union transitions. Having a previous nonmarital birth was associated with a lower relative risk of marriage and a greater risk of separation. In contrast, a prior marriage or marital birth was linked to union stability (getting married or remaining cohabiting). Characteristics of the union and birth were also important. Important racial/ethnic differences emerged in the analyses. Black parents had the most complex family histories and the lowest relative risk of transitioning to marriage. Stable cohabitations were more common among Hispanic mothers, and measures of family complexity were particularly important to their relative risk of marriage. White mothers who began cohabiting after conception were the most likely to marry, suggesting that “shot-gun cohabitations” serve as a stepping-stone to marriage.     

Stability of Marital and Cohabiting Unions Following a First Birth

In a recent paper, Manning et al. (Popul Res Policy Rev 23:135–139, 2004) examine the stability of marital and cohabiting unions from the perspective of children and find that children born to cohabiting parents are more likely to experience a parental separation than children born to married parents. They find, further, that subsequent marriage among cohabiting parents is associated with increases in the stability of these families, particularly among whites. We rely on the same data, the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth, to extend their findings. Our empirical results complement Manning et al.’s by modeling four distinct trajectories of cohabitation and marriage around the time of the first birth and by comparing the dissolution risks associated with each. We focus particular attention on the stability of cohabiting couples who marry before a first birth and those who marry after a first birth. For these couples, we find that the ordering of cohabitation, marriage, and childbirth is not associated with union stability, and we interpret this to suggest that many cohabiting couples jointly plan marriage and childbirth.

城市老年人口与已婚子女同住的观念与现实

和许多亚洲国家一样,中国老年人与已婚子女高水平的同住现象,通常被理解为传统的家庭观念在这个地区持续的一种表现。但是,在中国城市,尽管受不同的传统与非传统观念的影响,家长仍与子女同住。文章用中国九大城市60岁以上老年人口抽样调查资料来分析老年人的居住喜好及实际的居住方式。结果表明,很大比例的老年人没有按照他们认为最好的居住方式居住,而是根据实际情况来选择居住方式。甚至他们的居住喜好也取决于实际情况,包括住房面积、是否需要帮助、家庭的规模和对家庭关系的感觉。     

Paternal Incarceration and Support for Children in Fragile Families

High U.S. incarceration rates have motivated recent research on the negative effects of imprisonment on later employment, earnings, and family relationships. Because most men in jail and prison are fathers, a large number of children may be placed at considerable risk by policies of incarceration. This article examines one dimension of the economic risk faced by children of incarcerated fathers: the reduction in the financial support that they receive. We use a population-based sample of urban children to examine the effects of incarceration on this support. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal regressions indicate that formerly incarcerated men are less likely to contribute to their families, and those who do contribute provide significantly less. The negative effects of incarceration on fathers’ financial support are due not only to the low earnings of formerly incarcerated men but also to their increased likelihood to live apart from their children. Men contribute far less through child support (formal or informal) than they do when they share their earnings within their household, suggesting that the destabilizing effects of incarceration on family relationships place children at significant economic disadvantage.     

Dividedness,Institutions and Economic Performance: A Cross-National Analysis of Democratic Stability

Why divided societies face particular obstacles in maintaining democracy is one of the most challenging questions posed in the literature. Several studies posit that ethnically, religiously, and linguistically divided societies are incapable of establishing and holding a democratic system because of their social divisions and institutional weaknesses. We challenge this argument and examine whether political institutional arrangements (constraints over the executive, geographic distribution of political power, and form of government) in addition to economic performance are the crucial factors of success to establish and sustain a democratic regime and social unity in divided states. We use the Quality of Governance time-series standard dataset to test this hypothesis. By analyzing data on 163 states (1960–2012) we find that institutional constraints imposed over the executive and economic performance are the two primary influential factors in sustaining democratic regimes in multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic, and multi-religious societies.     

The Compositional and Institutional Sources of Union Dissolution for Married and Unmarried Parents in the United States

Unmarried parents have less stable unions than married parents, but there is considerable debate over the sources of this instability. Unmarried parents may be more likely than married parents to end their unions because of compositional differences, such as more disadvantaged personal and relationship characteristics, or because they lack the normative and institutional supports of marriage, thus rendering their relationships more sensitive to disadvantage. In this article, we evaluate these two sources of union instability among married, cohabiting, and dating parents following the birth of a shared child, using five waves of longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Using discrete-time event history models, we find that demographic, economic, and relationship differences explain more than two-thirds of the increased risk of dissolution for unmarried parents relative to married parents. We also find that differential responses to economic or relationship disadvantage do not explain why unmarried parents are more likely to end their unions than married parents.     

The Impact of Parental Transfers on Living Standards of Married Children

The paper focuses on the effect of various forms of parental assistance (i.e.financial support to meet living expenses, purchase of housing, fundingeducation) on living standards (i.e., possession of material goods). Analysisof the data from the Israeli sample reveals a considerable variation amongfamilies with regard to parental support. The data demonstrate that supportis more prevalent among families of high socioeconomic origin (and ofsmaller size) than among families of low socioeconomic origin. Parentalsupport, in turn, significantly affects current standard of living (i.e.number of household goods in possession of the family). That is, familiesthat have benefited from extensive support are more likely to maintainhigher living standards net of social resources and labor market outcomes.The effect of support for education is mediated via labor market outcomes,whereas the impact of support toward purchase of home is direct and netof labor market rewards. The findings revealed by the analysis suggest,rather strongly, that parental transfers not only reproduce but mayactually increase economic inequality across generations. The meaning offindings are discussed in light of theories of social stratification andinequality.     

Offering Bright Future to Children in Families with Difficulties

Li Keqiang,Premier of the State Council of China,chaired an executive meeting of the State Council in Beijing on November 19,2014,to arrange promottion of child development in poor areas so as to make children in families with diffi culties have a bright future.The meeting emphasized that children were the hope     

The Educational Gradient in Health Among Children in Immigrant Families

Population Research and Policy Review - Educational inequality in the health of US children—what social scientists refer to as the “educational gradient” in health—is...     

子女数量对已婚女性劳动供给和工资的影响

本文利用中国健康与营养调查数据估计了子女数量对已婚女性劳动供给、工作时间投入和工资水平的影响,并通过采用工具变量法和赫克曼两步法(Heckman two-step)解决了回归分析中子女数量的内生性问题以及工作时间和工资方程中存在的样本选择问题,第一次全面考察了中国城镇和农村已婚女性生育率对其劳动供给行为和工资水平的因果效应。实证分析表明,生育子女数量的增加会显著降低城镇已婚女性的劳动供给,并且显著降低在业女性的工作时间投入和工资水平。生育子女数量的增加对农村已婚女性是否参与非农就业没有显著影响,对参与了非农就业女性的工资也没有显著影响,但是显著降低了其工作时间投入。     

澳大利亚离婚家庭子女经济支持政策及其影响

澳大利亚每年的离婚人口数量较高,涉及未成年子女的离婚数量占到将近一半,每年有超过40 000名18岁以下未成年子女正在承受着家庭离散之苦。与情感方面相比,经济上的变故给离婚家庭未成年子女带来更大的冲击。根据对澳大利亚离婚家庭的家庭收入、房屋拥有率、租房费用、资产总量以及经济压力这几个指标进行对比和分析,发现离婚对澳大利亚家庭经济水平具有严重负面影响,是导致澳大利亚离婚家庭子女福利降低的根源。随着离婚家庭经济水平的降低,澳大利亚离婚家庭的儿童保育费用下降、儿童教育支出减少、子女发展受到明显抑制。为此,澳大利亚不断完善相关法律法规,采取了诸多政策措施,在改善离婚家庭子女福利上积累了丰富的经验,取得了巨大成效,具体措施包括明确财产和抚养费分配的原则、优先考虑儿童最大利益、制定"儿童抚养计划"等。随着中国离婚程序的简化,中国离婚率已经从1984年的0.39%升至2018年的3.2%,超过了英、法、韩、日等国家。中国受离婚影响的未成年子女数量也随之不断增长,他们正承受着离婚带来的巨大的精神和物质压力。澳大利亚对离婚家庭子女的支持政策值得我国借鉴,建议我国以"儿童最大利益优先原则"确定抚养人,合理...     

独生子女与非独生子女家庭老年人养老意愿及其影响因素研究

本研究利用2014年"中国老年社会追踪调查"数据分别考察独生子女家庭和非独生子女家庭老年人的养老观念和养老意愿,重点分析两类老年人养老意愿的影响因素及其差异。结果表明大部分老年人仍然认同"养儿防老"的观念,认为养老责任主要应由子女承担,在家庭中养老仍是最为老年人接受的方式。与非独生子女家庭老年人相比,独生子女家庭老年人更偏好独立居住,对子女养老责任的期待更低,但对子女精神支持的需求更高,同时更加企盼来自政府和制度的养老支持。个人因素和家庭因素共同塑造了老年人的养老意愿,但对两类老年人的影响不同。从个人因素看,受教育程度的高低会更为显著地影响非独生子女家庭老年人的养老意愿,特别是影响其对机构养老的态度。从家庭特征看,对独生子女家庭老年人而言,配偶发挥的作用似乎超过了子女,对其养老意愿产生了更为重要的影响,"夫妻健全"的独生子女父母更偏好独立养老。"养儿"对两类老年人均有影响,但意义不同。对于非独生子女家庭老年人而言,有无儿子显著影响的是"在自己家还是子女家养老"的家庭内部决策;对于独生子女家庭老年人而言,有无儿子则显著影响了其养老地点在家庭和社会之间的抉择。     

已婚独生女相对资源优势与单独居住选择研究——基于苏州市吴中区的调查

第一代独生子女大规模进入婚育年龄,由于此类家庭关系的特殊性,势必对传统的家庭居住方式产生冲击。文章利用2006年苏州市20-29岁育龄妇女家庭户调查资料,建立已婚独生女资源优势变量,通过列联交互表与卡方检验的方法,判断资源优势与独生女单独居住的关联性。研究结果表明：已婚独生女单独居住与其社会资本和文化资本优势呈显著负相关,与其经济资本优势呈正相关。夫妻间资本优势影响家庭权力分配,并影响到居住决策,且社会资本和文化资本优势影响力超过经济资本优势。鉴于此,本文提出“优势一选择”理论予以解释,认为独生女依据自己不同的比较资源优势,依次选择自己意愿的居住方式。     

Cross-National Differences in the Association Between Parental Work Hours and Time with Children in Europe: A Multilevel Analysis

This study investigates cross-national differences in the association between parental work hours and parent–child interaction time and explains differences in this individual-level association on the basis of country characteristics. It extends prior research by testing the moderating effects of country characteristics through multilevel analyses and by considering the possibility of selection effects. The presumption was that parents employ strategies to protect family life from work encroachments and that these strategies are enhanced by reconciliation policies, stronger parenthood ideologies, access to part-time work and higher income levels. Multilevel analyses were based on a subset of 5.183 parents in 23 countries from the 2005 European Working Conditions Survey that was complemented with country-level data. The negative association between parental work hours and parent–child time indeed varied significantly across countries and was weaker in countries where formal child care coverage was higher, part-time work was less prevalent, and earnings were lower. The effects of part-time work and earnings mainly applied to mothers. These findings suggest that child care coverage limits the availability of children and that differences in parent–child time between parents who work short and long hours are more pronounced when part-time work is more accessible and affordable.     

Consistency and Continuity in Material and Psychosocial Adversity Among Australian Families with Young Children

Prior studies on longitudinal continuity of adversity have mostly examined persistence of individual adversity, rather than of families and have focussed mainly on material disadvantage. However, adversity is multi-dimensional, and in the case of families with children, it includes psychosocial as well as material elements. While both material and psychosocial elements are recognized as critical to child development, these aspects of family adversity are often studied in isolation and there is a dearth of longitudinal evidence on the extent to which such factors are transient or persistent. Using the first three waves (2004–2005, 2006–2007, 2008–2009) of the longitudinal study of Australian children this paper investigated the consistency and continuity of multiple adversity in families with children using material and psychosocial indicators. First, longitudinal factor analysis determined that a consistent factor structure of multiple adversity adequately fit the data longitudinally. Second, cross-tabular analysis showed significant changes in the prevalence of specific adversities over waves. In particular adversity related to changes in family composition and social support followed an increasing trend. Adversity in two material elements—economic status and hardship—decreased over time. Third, variance-components models revealed that though aggregate scores of material and psychosocial adversity indicated a high degree of continuity over time, continuity in disaggregated measures showed that within families a great deal of variability in adversity occurs, with intra-class correlations ranging from 0.27 to 0.84. The more persistent forms of adversity—family, substance use, economic adversity—are areas where targeted interventions are feasible while employment conditions and time pressure are more transient and may require intervention at the population level to reduce overall prevalence of the adversities. Our study has reinforced the need to assess psychosocial adversity in studies of families with children as a balance to the more commonly utilized material adversity.     

Developing Prospective Measures of Adversity Among Australian Families with Young Children

Most studies of children’s development and parents’ wellbeing have not dealt effectively with the complexity of multiple disadvantage. Traditional approaches have typically used a limited set of outcomes and predictors. Even studies utilizing multiple risk factors have often treated these as confounders, adjusting for their influence, while concentrating on a primary association of interest. Such strategies do not illuminate the real world essence of disadvantage, i.e. that adversities co-occur more than expected by chance and that multiple disadvantage is common. The main aim of the present paper is to address this neglected topic and develop summary measures of adversity using the 2004–2005 data from Wave 1 of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. Information was obtained from families of 5,107 babies (0–1 years) and families of 4,983 children (4–5 years). The prevalence of multiple disadvantage among families with young children and the degree to which summary adversity measures are associated with each other and with family and child outcomes is then estimated. Using factor analysis, 12 lower-order constructs and two higher-order components of adversity were developed, labelled (1) material and (2) psychosocial adversity. Findings show that the two component scores were more strongly associated with outcomes than were the more specific construct scores and that psychosocial adversity was somewhat more relevant to family wellbeing and child development than material adversity.