Abstract
Within members of the global village, affluent or poor nations alike, the family structure has undergone a dramatic change. Taiwan is no exception. In the past, the traditional Taiwanese family secures social order by fusing social forces adhesively. However, accompanied with economic development, feminist movement and population immigration, the traditional Taiwanese family structure has undergone a dramatically change. The traditional family has faced colossal challenges; the increased unwedded mothers, sky-high divorce rate, separated family due to parents working in the both side of the Taiwan Strait. All of these contribute towards making the single parent family as a “social fact” in the trend of Taiwan social change.Unlike other countries, the ratio of single parent family with male headed families has been relatively high in Taiwan. A 2001 nationwide survey of 3500 single parent families in Taiwan indicates that the ratio of male headed and female headed single parent families respectively is close to 1:1, and the economic condition has no significant difference. Furthermore, since the remarried rate of parents in the single parent family is low (in 2007 the divorce rate in Taiwan was 2.5/1000, the remarried rate for male was 27.1/1000, for female was 11.2/1000), more than half of surveyed single parent families have lived in such structure more than five years. It shows that the lifestyle of single parent family in Taiwan has become commonplace. Two distinctive characteristics of Taiwanese single parent family are the high ratio of (1) covert single parent family due to a conservative culture regarding separation being better than divorce; (2) three generation family with grandparents, single parent, and children becomes the most significant social support network of single parent family. Follow this line of thinking, Taiwanese social policy of single parent family should be planned to adjust to the special cultural needs of single parent families in Taiwan like single parent family living with grandparents. However, Taiwanese government has not yet implemented such policy and establishes various social aids for eliminating poverty. These unstructured aids have focused generally on single parent family with mother only while most single parent families relied on un-official and non-organizational support.This study has suggested that the government should actively construct comprehensive family-focused policy and support network among single parent families to provide services to reduce their heavy housework and work load and explore different needs of various single families.
Highlights
The nutshell of social organization, is the earliest socialization locale; it is the foundation and sanctuary for individual survival, race propagation, founding nation, culture heritage, and maintenance of the social order
The traditional family structure has qualitatively changed after the WW II
The modern decreased-member family, as Wetzel (1990:4-5) suggests, has experienced wobbly family life and heterogeneous families and significant reallocation of housework and family income. On top of these phenomena, the undercurrents agitated the modern family are the increase of teenage mothers, the increase of divorce rate, the increasing number of single parent families, and the increase of female poverty
Summary
The nutshell of social organization, is the earliest socialization locale; it is the foundation and sanctuary for individual survival, race propagation, founding nation, culture heritage, and maintenance of the social order. 3% increases of the single parent family children in the past 10 years indicate that the change of living condition of single parent family (Hsueh, 2002) Such growing trend can be found in a 2001 national survey conducted by Population Affairs Administration, Ministry of Interior, which reports that the single parent family is 318,544, 4.73% of total 6,738,529 families. Together with the sickness, accident (may or may not come to the death) and unwedded mother, have become common mean to end the marriage and contributes the single parent family as a “social fact” in the tide of Taiwanese social change Evolved from this “social fact” are problems associated with both parent(s) and children of the single parent family--economic security, children rearing, psychological disposition, social relationship, job and living, as well as legal consultation.
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