The Changing Demography of Lone Motherhood

Abstract

Abstract Increases in divorce, cohabitation, and childbearing outside marriage have all contributed to the separation of marriage and parenthood, with lone parenthood being the prominent manifestation of this development. Between 1961 and 1994 there was a fourfold increase in the proportion of families headed by a lone mother; from around 5 per cent of all families with dependent children in 1961 to over 20 per cent in 1994. The rise in the proportion of lone mother families that occurred during the 1970s was due in large measure to the rise in the rate of divorce, whereas the more recent increases from the mid¬ l 980s onwards are more associated with the growth in childbearing outside legal marriage. This chapter examines the demographic impetuses behind the growth in lone mother families and the changing character of lone motherhood with particular reference to the last half¬ century. The routes to lone motherhood are complex and varied. In this chapter as an aid to simplification we divide the lone mother population into two broad groups: never-married lone mothers, those who have never contracted a formal marriage; and post-marital lone mothers, those who become lone mothers after a marriage had broken down. We discuss each in turn. For the group of never-married lone mothers we discuss the pathways to that experience, assessing the role of sexual behaviour, contraceptive practices, abortion, bridal pregnancy, and adoption, as well as changing marriage patterns and the emergence of widespread cohabitation on the incidence of and trends in pre-marital lone motherhood.