La séparation des parents en France et en Russie : situation et évolution des risques du point de vue des enfants

Abstract

The Generations and Gender Surveys (GGS) conducted in both France (2005) and Russia (2004) have been analyzed from the perspective of the children in separated families. As a comparison of the family situations of children of various ages shows, the frequency of single-parent families is higher in Russia where these children are more likely to live in multi-generation households. The probability is increasing in both countries that the children born to couples living together (whether married or not) – and especially the children born during the 1980s in Russia – will, before they come of age, see their parents separate. In both countries, the parents of the children most exposed to the risk of separation share some characteristics: their mother formed a couple at a young age, her partner has at least one other child or is older, or she did not spend her whole childhood with both her parents. In France, unlike in Russia, officially marrying and practicing religion (even seldom) are factors that significantly lower the risk of parents separating.