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JustResearch no. 12
Research in Profile (cont'd)
Research Funded by the Department of Justice Canada on the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth
By Catherine Thomson [1]
INTRODUCTION
Few Canadian national data sources exist that can provide the basis for analysing outcomes from children as they face the separation and divorce of their parents. As we look for ways to address and meet the best interests of children, we look for empirical evidence for what is happening now in instances of family break up. The National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth provides a unique opportunity to track the development and experience of children as they mature. Initial data collection in 1994-95 collected information for 0-11 year olds, and these children have been followed every two years since. This article summarizes several of the research studies sponsored by the Department of Justice using the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth.
Custody, Access and Child Support: Findings from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth [2]
This report was prepared for the Department by Marcil-Gratton and Le Bourdais. The Family History and Custody section of the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY) [3] provides a much needed source of Canadian data on children's family experiences. Family context at break-up, as well as subsequent experiences and longevity of arrangements, cannot be studied using other data sources. Maintenance enforcement data available from the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics contains only the subset of cases for which formal, enforceable support obligations have been registered, and therefore does not accurately reflect the full population of families experiencing support and custody needs at family break up. Divorce statistics reported through Statistics Canada Vital Statistics section do not cover the break up of common law unions, nor those married couples who separate but have not divorced, and therefore only reflect a proportion of all families in Canada.
Initial examination of the Family and Custody History data revealed some interesting findings: children are being born in greater numbers to common-law couples, and are more at risk of seeing their parents separate than if they had been born to married parents. Children of broken common law unions are more likely to live with their mother, see their father irregularly, and are less likely to benefit from regularly paid child support.
Children whose parents divorce (not merely separate) are more apt to have a court order for child support; children who have a private arrangement for child support are more likely to benefit from regular payment.
Comparing data from the Family History Survey 1984 (1961-1963 cohorts), the General Social Survey 1990 (1971-1973 cohorts) and the NLSCY 1994-1995 (1983-1984 and 1987-1988 cohorts) provides an illustration of the extent of and trends in family break up for children over different periods of time. Of children born at the start of the sixties, about one quarter had been either born to a single mother or had seen their parents' separation by the time they were 20 years old. For half of these families, the separation had occurred after the child had reached ten years of age.
Sources:
- 1961-1963 Cohorts = Family History Survey 1984;
- 1971-1973 Cohorts = General Social Survey 1990;
- 1983-1984/1987-1988 Cohorts = NLSCY 1994-1995.
Children born in the seventies experienced their parents' separation earlier. By the age of 15, already a quarter of them had lived through their parents' separation, the majority of them before they were ten years of age.
For children born in the early eighties, a quarter of them had seen parental separation by the age of ten; for those children born later in the decade (1987-1988), the quarter mark was reached by age 6.
Initial data from this survey indicate that 80% of children under the age of 12 are in their mother's residential custody. Seven percent are in their father's custody, with 13% being described as shared physical custody. Of those 13% in shared physical custody, 69% of these children actually lived a majority of the time with their mother.
Linking Family Change, Parents' Employment and Income and Children's Economic Well-Being: A Longitudinal Perspective [4]
This report, prepared by Juby, Le Bourdais and Marcil-Gratton, examined situations where family break up had occurred between the two cycles of data collected (cycle 1 in 1994-95, and cycle 2 in 1996-97), and compared outcomes in relation to pre-break up characteristics of families. Pre break up earning opportunity, employment choices and patterns may have a bearing on choices and arrangements made after the family has broken apart. Additional cycles of available data also enabled analysis as to durability of outcomes already present at cycle 1.
Most of the children in two-parent families (95%) have at least one of those parents with full-time employment. The most common arrangement is for both parents to be working full-time; this is true for 43% of children. The second most common arrangement is with one parent working full-time and one parent working part-time (27%), followed by children with a stay-at-home parent and the other working full time (20%). In lone-parent families just over 40% of children lived with a parent working full-time.
Pre separation family earning characteristics were examined in relation to outcomes for custody. The higher the family income before separation, the more likely children were to live either in shared custody or in their father's custody. The importance of income in relation to shared custody is obvious, with the need for two family homes.
Shared custody is a popular choice for dual earner couples. About 20% of children in double-income families were in shared arrangements compared with 6% of other families (one or neither parent is employed).
Children of single earner families were more apt to stay with their father after separation. Twenty percent of these children stayed with their fathers, compared to under 8% when both or neither parent was working. Children stayed with their mothers 89% of the time, when neither parent had full time employment.
The longevity of different types of custodial and contact arrangements was also examined in this report. Data were compared at cycle 2 for those children who already had custody and access provisions in place at cycle 1. Living arrangements for those in father custody or mother custody were very durable. Almost all the children living with their father at cycle 1 (relatively small group, only 7% of children in 1994-95) continued in that arrangement 2 years later. Similarly, children living with their mothers were also by and large still in those arrangements. The frequency of contact with their fathers did change over that time period, and not only in one direction.
Conversely, shared living arrangements in place in 1994 were not the same 2 years later at cycle 2. Nine of ten children had a different arrangement: 4 of 10 children now lived with their fathers, and 5 of 10 lived with their mothers.
When Parents Separate: Further Findings from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth [5]
With a third cycle of data collected (1998-99), Juby, Marcil-Gratton and Le Bourdais took a longer look at the evolution of trends and revealed:
- The proportion of children born in a marriage dropped from 85% to 69% (comparing those children born in 1983/84 to those born in 1997/98);
- The proportion of children born to cohabiting couples rose from 9% to 22% (with the incidence doubling in Ontario, and tripling in the eastern provinces);
- The probability of parental separation rose throughout the 1980s but levelled off by the early 1990s;
- Birth to single mothers increased from 6% to 10%. In the Atlantic provinces, 1 in 6 babies are born outside a union; and,
- There was a rise in joint custody during the 1990's.
Children's arrival within a family context can also be examined from the standpoint of whether they are part of their mother's or father's second family. For older children, this was true for 11% of them, compared with 18% for the younger children.
Family structure can be a misleading way to study family break-up, given that there are different ways to arrive at lone parent or even an "intact" family. Similarly, children born to second families have a different family environment compared to those born into first families. The presence of half-siblings and stepsiblings can add further complexity. For the child of separated or divorced parents, their "family unit" may refer to a residential unit, or it may refer to biological parents, one of whom is non-resident. For this reason, the authors introduce the family life course approach to studying family break up, as opposed to family structure.
There are two kinds of two-parent families intact families (4 out of 5 children belong in this category) where neither parent has other children living elsewhere, and second families.
Second families themselves are of three varieties:
- Paternal half siblings live elsewhere (i.e., with their mother – about 5% of children are in this group which is sometimes referred to as quasi-intact);
- Stepfather families (i.e., maternal half siblings only live there – there are about 5% of children in this group too); and,
- Paternal half siblings and sometimes maternal half-siblings are present (about 3% of children are in this situation).
Eleven percent of children born in 1997-98 had lived from birth with half-siblings, with another 7% having half-siblings in another household.
Age of children, their sex, whether their parents had a formal court order or a private agreement, and where the family lived in Canada were examined in a multinomial
logistic regression model to assess these factors in relation to the likelihood the children would live with their father rather than their mother.
The model confirmed that the age of the child is an important factor in living arrangements, with shared and sole father custody more likely for older children. There was also an increase in popularity of shared living arrangements during the latter part of the 1990s. Private custody agreements were more likely to incorporate shared living arrangements, as were arrangements made in Quebec. Interestingly, children were much more likely to either be in shared living arrangements or live with their father than children elsewhere. Interesting too, was that the child's sex did not appear to have an impact on the type of custody arrangements.
Shared custody then, appears to have gained some popularity, although the report further examines what the details of the arrangements entail. Quite a significant range of possibilities were included in the notion of shared custody, with some respondents indicating they had a shared arrangement, when the description actually corresponded to sole custody with liberal visitation. Seventeen percent of the children had a custodial arrangement that involved spending every second weekend with one parent, and the rest of the time with the other parent. Most respondents would recognize this as sole custody with liberal visitation.
Shared custody arrangements tend to be more flexible, and perhaps this fluidity contributes to the lack of clarity. Using 1998-99 data, the move from a shared custody arrangement occurred over time. If the length of separation was under 2 years, 83% of children were still in a shared arrangement; from 2-3 years, this dropped to 37% remaining in a shared arrangement. At 4-5 years, only 13% remained in a shared arrangements, and at 6 plus years, only 8% remained with shared arrangements.
Moving On: Expansion of the Family Network After Parents Separate [6]
This report, prepared by Juby, Marcil-Gratton and Le Bourdais, concentrated on the broader family networks of children whose parents had separated or divorced. The continuing conjugal path of parents might include the arrival of stepparents, and step- and half- siblings, bringing complexity into a child's family environment. The relationships with parents and stepparents are explored through the eyes of the child: how do they perceive their relationship with parents and stepparents?
Using the notion of family transition allows the study to focus on family network, and on relationships with non-resident family members who remain part of the child's family. Moving beyond the residential group, the composition of a child's family depends on where in their parents' conjugal path they arrive.
Findings in this report include:
- The probability that parents will enter new conjugal unions rises consistently with time since separation, although fathers form new relationships more rapidly than mothers;
- Mothers and fathers in Quebec formed new relationships more rapidly than other mothers and fathers elsewhere in Canada;
- New conjugal unions are equally likely for once married parents and common law unions;
- Non-resident fathers who have only limited contact with their children are most likely to enter new relationships; those with full custody are least likely to enter into new relationships; and,
- Children are more likely to live with their mother's new partner than their father's new partner. In other words, more children live with step fathers (84%) than with step mothers (6%).
Almost half of the new relationships were formed with partners who already had children. As most children remain with their mothers after separation, stepsiblings do not often live in the same residence. Mothers however, tend to have new children within these subsequent unions more quickly than fathers. As a result, children more often live with maternal half-siblings than with paternal half-siblings. For children aged 0-13 years as of the 1996-97 NLSCY cycle, nearly one in five had at least one stepsibling or half sibling.
Children gain younger half siblings when their separated parents have children in their new unions, and they gain older half siblings by being born into a second family where there are already children from one of the parents' previous unions. Half siblings are connected by kinship, whereas stepsiblings may remain part of the family only as long as the parents remain together. The most common situation is for children born into a step family environment (having older half siblings). Very few children (3%) had both step and half siblings.
The NLSCY asked children aged 10-15 about their ability to confide in their parents, and other authority figures, such as teachers and coaches. Both boys and girls indicated they were more likely to confide in their mothers than in their fathers. Not surprisingly, and regardless of family circumstances, teens have a declining ability to confide in their parents, although it is more so the case for teen daughters. Where there had been an instance of parental separation (and even if there had been a reconciliation), fewer children felt able to confide in both of their parents.
Relationships with stepparents were also explored. Biological fathers are still identified as the “father figure with whom they spend the most time” even when living with their mother and a stepfather. Children regarded their biological father more highly compared to their stepfather. Even so, where step fathers were considered the main father figure (by children), 45% of the children indicated they received a great deal of affection from him, as opposed to very little (21%).
A multivariate logistic regression was used to clarify the interplay between family environment and socio-economic background. Living with a lone mother raises the probability of children not feeling close to their father. Living with a mother and stepfather lead to less significant feelings of closeness to a stepfather (if he had been identified as the main father figure by the child). Children living with their biological father felt very close to him, even more so than for children whose parents never separated.
Looking at the study of family in terms of categories can mask a variety of dynamics. Studying family transitions and life courses can reveal a great deal more about the nature of a child's family environment, his or her residential group, existence of an extended sibling network, and the existence of stepparents. The complexity of this shifting nature of family circumstances for some children, and for some parents needs to be considered when examining how policies and services need to be tailored to address their needs.
"The picture of a child's family life course that emerges is full of contrasts: between children born into two parent rather than one-parent families, or to married rather than cohabiting parents, in terms of the different levels of complexity of their family life pathways. The series of events initiated by separation alters the child's family landscape, multiplying the number of parents, siblings and other relatives that children relate to in the course of their childhood, creates another contrast: that between children who spend their entire childhood within an "intact"family, with no parents other than biological ones and no siblings other than their full siblings, and those who do not an ever increasing group of youngsters with an entirely different experience of what family life and membership is all about."
CONCLUSION
There remains much more that can be studied as these children reach the ages at which they make their own decisions about family formation and child rearing. The NLSCY has provided Canadian context to study family break up. The family law area is an extremely fluid one, where the identity of the respondent is often as important as the response.
