In a world of family change, how are children faring?
Families around the world are changing dramatically. The newly released World Family Map 2014 from the US research centre Child Trends provides an evidence base for strategies to improve child wellbeing. In this Q&A with MercatorNet the project’s co-director Laura Lippman notes some of the major findings.
What is the aim of this annual report on families around the world?
The aim of the report is to monitor key indicators of family well-being, and to provide an in depth analysis of how family characteristics relate to child well-being outcomes. Previous studies focus on either rich or poor countries, yet we have gathered data to investigate trends in all regions of the world. Families are changing dramatically, and we are interested in how those changes are affecting child well-being.
What definition of “family” does it use?
The first indicator on living arrangements shows how diverse families are. It shows the percentage of children ages 0-17 living with two, one, or no parents as well as those living with extended family members and how that percentage varies by region and by countries within region. The diversity of families is an important take away from the study. Countries use different definitions of families in their censuses, but we have calculated the percentage of children in each type of living arrangement consistently across countries.
Are most children still raised by their own two parents? Are there countries where that is not the case?
Yes, the majority of children in every country live with two parents, with the sole exception of South Africa, where a higher percentage of children live with one parent.
The data do not allow us to distinguish between biological, step, adoptive, or same sex parents, so the parents may be of any of these types.
Single parenthood is on the increase — where is it most common? Are there any surprises in this pattern? Have you any theories why it would be so?
There are different reasons for this increase for each region.
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