Editor: Justin Healey
ISBN 1 920801 48 0
Year 2006

Price: $19.95

  
Changing Families

Volume 238, Issues in Society
Over the last thirty years or so, major social trends in marriage and work patterns have impacted on Australian family formation and structures. Various forms of families have emerged which challenge the status of the perceived traditional model of the modern nuclear family. This book explores family diversity and change and presents an overview of characteristics which defi ne the family in its many evolving guises. Lone parent families, step and blended families, grandparent families, and same-sex families are all examined in the light of major social shifts including the trend toward smaller familes, both parents being in the workforce, divorce, later life partnering, the decline in marriage in favour of de facto relationships, women having children on their own, and access to reproductive technologies for gay and lesbian couples. Despite this diversity, 90% of families with dependent children are still the norm, however by 2016 couples without children will become the most common family type. What is the future of the family?

Chapter 1 Changing Family Trends
What do Australian families look like today?; Australian family characteristics; Couples forsake love and marriage; Diversity and change in Australian families: statistical profiles; Meet the family – in its many evolving guises; Family: it's all relative; Defining the family; Social trends that affect family life; Families first – in every variety; 'Family' is a doing word; Times change, so why shouldn't families?; New families for changing times

Chapter 2 Diversity of Family Types
Single parenting; The truth about divorce: kids turn out fine; Single parent families; Children seeing more of their fathers after divorce; Degrees of separation: mothers give equal parenting the thumbs down; Understanding stepfamilies; stepfamilies; His, hers and theirs; Lesbian couples take nuclear option when it comes to family; 10 things you didn't know about Australian family life; Children of lesbian and single women parents; Young-old rift on family value; Gays hit by society not mum and dad; Innovative' definitions of 'family' flout history; Exploding the nuclear family ...

Glossary; Facts and Figures; Additional Links and Resources; Index of Contents
 

Facts & Figures

• Most couples now live together before they get married and a small minority of couples choose to remain in a de facto relationship. Cohabitation is much more prevalent among couples aged 15-24 years (63% of all live-in relationships), with only 25% of couples aged 25-34 and just over 10% of couples aged 35-44 cohabiting.

• Roughly one-third of all marriages end in divorce with couples marrying in their early twenties at greater risk than those marrying later in life. If 1997-1999 marriage rates continue, 58.2 per cent of divorced males and 48.7% of divorced females will re-marry. Divorcees tend to marry other divorcees with 53.7% of all divorced men who re-marry marrying someone who is also divorced.

• If current rates of childlessness remain constant for those women who were in their early twenties in 2000, it is estimated that approximately 28-30% of those women will not have any children.

• In 2003, lone parent families constituted 22.3% of families with dependent children, compared with 7.1% in 1969. This increase is not solely due to divorce or the breakdown of cohabiting relationships. Some of the increase in lone parent families is a result of women choosing to have a child outside of any relationship.

• One in five female same-sex couples have a child living with them and a much smaller proportion (less than 5%) of male same-sex couples have a child living with them. Most of these children were born when their parents were living in a heterosexual relationship.

• Families with children make up 60% of all families. These can be grouped into families with dependent children (i.e. families with a child being aged less than 15 years or a full-time dependent student aged 15-24 years) and families with non-dependent children only. Of all families with children, 79% had dependent children, while 21% had non-dependent children only.

• In 2003, there were 2.5 million families with at least one child aged 0-17 years (45% of all families). Of these families, 78% were couple families and 22% were one parent families. (p.5)

• There were 2.5 million families with at least one child aged 0-17 years in 2003. The majority, 1.8 million (71%), were intact couple families.

• In 2003, there were 78,100 blended families represent-ing 3% of all families with children aged 0-17 years. This proportion is the same as that recorded in 1992 and 1997.

• As a proportion of all families with children aged 0-17 years, one parent families increased from 17% in 1992 to 21% in 1997, but remained at the same level in 2003 (22%).

• There were 1.1 million children aged 0-17 years in 2003 (23% of all children in this age group) who had a natural parent living elsewhere. Of these children, 76% lived in one parent families, 13% in stepfamilies and 9% in blended families.

• Children are more likely to live with their mother than their father after parents separate. In 84% of cases it is the father who is the natural parent living elsewhere.

• Of the children aged 0-17 years with a natural parent living elsewhere, 50% (or 543,500) saw their other parent frequently (at least once per fortnight), while 31% (339,000) only saw their other natural parent either rarely (once per year, or less often) or never.

• There has been a rise in the percentage of couple families. In 2001 they represented 35.6% of all families, compared with 28.7% in 1982.

• Of couple families with and without children, in 2001, 43.2% had no children living with them - an increase from 37% per cent in 1982. By far the largest proportion of child-free couples are older people whose children have left home.

• Couple families with dependent children now form a minority of households, families, and couple families and represent a declining percentage of families (a 20% decline between 1976 and 2001). However, couple families represent the vast majority of families in which children live.

• Of couple families with dependent children 90% are intact, 5.5% are stepfamilies and 4.4% are blended families.

• Same-sex couples represent a small proportion of household couples (0.5%), with 20% of female same- sex couple households and 5% of male same-sex couple households containing children.

• Lone parent families, including those with dependent children, are becoming more common (7.1% in 1969 to 22.3% in 2003 of families with dependent children). Almost 27% of children spend some time up to the age of 18 living in a lone parent family.

• The main route to lone parenting is via relationship breakdown.

• 10.7% of families with a child under 18 are step or blended families. Children in step or blended families mainly live with their mother.

• 1.8% of households contain two or more families. Indigenous Australians (12.6%) and Australians born in Asia, Southern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa are much more likely to live in multi-family households.

• 25% of households consist of a person living on their own, and almost one in ten people live on their own. Levels of living alone are increasing, and the rate of growth is much more marked amongst younger than older age groups.

• Couples without children are projected to become the most common of family types, comprising 42% of families in 2021.

• Family households are projected to be the predominant household type and to make up between 62% and 71% of all household types in 2021.