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Jonathan Kelley and M.D.R. Evans. 2003. "Stepparenting in
Australia"
Australian Social Monitor 6(1): 1-4.
Today, about 9 per cent of Australian adults are, or have been, stepparents either with live-in stepchildren or with regular-visitor stepchildren or both, according to IsssA (International Social Science Survey/Australia) surveys based on representative nationwide samples amounting to 3,188 respondents. There has been little change in this since the middle 1990s. Multivariate analysis shows that most stepchildren come to a marriage from a prior divorce, although a parent's death and birth outside marriage both contribute, as well. Men are more likely to be live-in stepparents and women to be stepparents to regularly visiting stepchildren. Stepparenting occurs throughout the social hierarchy: there are no significant class differences in the likelihood of stepparenting. Moreover, stepparenting is not a step to be undertaken lightly. Multivariate analysis of its impact on overall happiness shows that stepparents are happier than are single people, but less happy than married people without stepchildren. When we turn to satisfaction with different aspects of life, the analysis shows that stepparents are less contented with their financial situation and less happy with their relationships with their children, but are no less happy in their marriages, jobs, hobbies or sense of purpose and meaning in life.
WwA: Worldwide Attitudes
ISSN 1323-9589
Volume 1996-04-29
Date: 29 April 1996
© Copyright Jonathan Kelley and M.D.R. Evans 1996. All
rights reserved.
Jonathan Kelley and M.D.R. Evans
Having children of one's own remains a way of life for most Australians, with 78% of adults aged 21 and over being parents. Step-parenting has always been a part of Australian life, in the early days reflecting mainly the ravages of disease, pre-modern childbirth techniques, and war. More recently, death has ebbed and divorce risen as sources of broken families. In the past, divorce was rare and difficult in Austalia, as it was in most Western nations. But no-fault divorce was established by the Family Law Act in 1976. The result was a sudden but brief upsurge in divorce, presumably reflecting decades of pent- up demand. Divorce then settled down again but at a level roughly twice what it had been before the divorce reform. The lifetime risk of divorce was about 10% of marriages up to the 1960s, rising dramatically to about 40% for the marriages of the late 1970s (Carmichael and McDonald 1986). It then stabilized with perhaps a gradual increase, reaching 43% in 1993 (Webster 1995). Current divorce levels are well within the usual range for Western nations, but still substantially below American rates. Many divorced people later re-marry, some of them bringing children to the new marriages. How many people are step-parents and how does it affect their lives?
To assess the experience of step-parenting, the International Social Science Survey/ Australia of 1995 asked a nationwide, simple random sample of 2338 Australians introduced the issue with "How many children have you ever had?" After asking about children born to the respondent, we went on to ask "How many step-children who lived with you for a year or more?" and "How many other step-children who visited regularly?"
6% of Australians report having had at least one step child living with them for a year or more, and another 3% report having had stepchildren who visited regularly. Some people experienced both live-in and visiting stepchildren, so, all in all, 8% of Australians report having been step-parents (we here don't count as step-parents those who don't live with the children, even though they may make financial sacrifices on behalf of the children). But this varies substantially by age and sex.
Overall, just 2% of those in their 20s are step-parents, compared to 8% of those in their 30s and 40s, and 11% of those in their 50s. And, reflecting the fact that they mostly started and substantially raised their families before the liberalization of divorce laws in the mid-1970s, just 7 percent of those in their 60s and 7% of those aged 70 or older have been step-parents.
Many divergent ideals have been put forward about who children should live with after divorce, but in practice, they are much more likely to live with their mother -- the age pattern of step-parenting, starting low in the 20s, peaking in the fifties, and lower for the pre-divorce generation is the same for men and women, but across the life span men are hugely more likely than women to be step parents -- in some age groups men are about twice as likely as women to have stepchildren in their homes. The pattern of regularly-visiting children is the reverse -- women are more likely than men to experience regular visits of step-children -- the typical pattern for these marriages seems to be that her children live in and his children visit.
Most research on this topic has focused on effects on the children. Evidence from Australia and several other countries is not unequivocal, nor unproblematic, but generally tends to support the pessimistic view that divorce has a small but statistically significant cost to the child's education and job prospects and that the mother's remarriage probably does not compensate (Biblarz and Raftery 1993; Cherlin 1992: 75-90; Cherlin and Furstenberg 1994; Dronkers 1994; Evans, Kelley, Borgers, Rollenberg and Dronkers 1995; Seltzer 1994). But we know rather little about effects on the parents lives. Who is most likely to have step-children? Of course it is mostly people who marry divorcees, but some illegitimate children also come to later marriages as step-children. Interestingly, social class has virtually nothing to do with having live-in step-children: men of all classes who marry divorced women seem prepared to open their homes to those children. But, in regular visiting, family income does make some difference: more affluent absent parents are a little more likely to organize regular visits, in part no doubt simply because of transportation costs when the children live far away.
Does having step-children affect how people feel about their lives? The answer is "a little bit". Overall, as is well known, married people are about 6 points out of 100 happier with their lives than are single people (a standard result). On average, having live-in step-children reduces that from six points to four and one half points. That is still substantially happier than a single person. And when we ask about satisfation with different aspects of life, we find that the only ones that are affected by step-children are a slight reduction in satisfaction with standard of living and a large reduction in satisfaction with children. Importantly, live-in step children do not reduce marital satisfaction.
About two decades ago, Andrew Cherlin described re-marriage as "an incomplete institution". And our results suggest remarriage remains incompletely institutionalized, especially in that effective parenting for step-parents remains an enormous challenge. Other research has demonstrated that children of divorce achieve a little less than their peers from intact families, a result that remains robust when controls for family prosperity are introduced, and is not substantially ameliorated by the mother's remarriage (Evans, Kelley, Borgers, Rollenberg, and Dronkers 1995 on Australia; see Seltzer 1994 for an overview of the American findings). It seems reasonable to suspect that the achievement deficit results from a laxer disciplinary environment that reflects the incomplete legitimation of stepfathers' rights to exercise authority over their stepchildren (Astone and McLanahan 1991). Children living in stepfamilies continue to experience more difficulties ranging from minor delinquency to behavioural difficulties in school to moving out of the parental home at very early ages (Cherlin and Furstenberg 1994; Goldscheider and Goldscheider 1993; Selzter 1994). Our results here suggest that step-parenting has a continuing, but not huge, cost to the step-parent, as well.
REFERENCES
Astone, Nan and Sara McLanahan. 1991. "Family Structure, Parental Practices, and High School Completion." American Sociological Review 56:309-320.
Bean, Clive S. 1991. "Comparison of National Social Science Survey Data with the 1986 Census." National Social Science Survey Report 2(6):12-19. [ISSN 1031-4067]
Biblarz, Timothy J. and Adrian E. Raftery. 1993. "The Effects of Family Disruption on Social Mobility". American Sociological Review 58: 97-109.
Carmichael, Gordon and Peter McDonald. 1986. "The Rise and Fall of Divorce in Australia". Presention, Annual Meetings of the Population Association of America, San Francisco.
Cherlin, Andrew J. 1992. Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage. (Revised Edition) Harvard University Press.
Cherlin, Andrew J. et al. 1991. "Longitudinal Studies of Effects of Divorce on Children in Great Britain and the United States" Science 252 (June): 1386- 1389.
Cherlin, Andrew and Frank F. Furstenberg. 1994. "Stepfamilies in the United States." Annual Review of Sociology 20: 259-281.
Dronkers, Jaap. 1994. "The Changing Effects of Lone Families on the Educational Attainment of their Children in a European Welfare State". Sociology 28: 171-192.
Evans, M.D.R. 1992. Australian Family Values in International Perspective. Melbourne: Australian Institute of Family Studies. (300 Queen St., Melbourne, Victoria).
Evans, M.D.R., Jonathan Kelley, M. Borgers, J. Dronkers, and L. Rollenberg. 1995. "Parental Divorce and Children's Education: Australian Evidence." Worldwide Attitudes 1995-07-17: 1-8
Featherman, David and Robert M. Hauser. 1978. Opportunity and Change. New York: Academic Press.
Furstenberg, Frank, S. Philip Morgan, and Paul Allison. 1987. "Paternal Participation and Children's Well-being after Marital Dissolution" American Sociological Review 52: 695-701.
Goldscheider, Frances K. and Calvin Goldscheider. 1993. Leaving Home Before Marriage: Ethnicity, Familism, and Generational Relationships. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Hogan, Dennis P. and Evelyn M. Kitagawa. 1985. "The Impact of Social Status, Family Structure, and Neighborhood on the Fertility of Black Adolescents." American Journal of Sociology 90:825-56.
Kelley, Jonathan, Clive S. Bean, M.D.R. Evans & Krzysztof Zagorski. 1996. Australia, 1995: International Social Science Survey. Codebook and Machine Readable Data File (Preliminary). Canberra: International Social Science Survey, Institute of Advanced Studies, Australian National University.
Kelley, Jonathan, Clive S. Bean, M.D.R. Evans & Krzysztof Zagorski. 1995. Questionnaire: International Social Science Survey/ Australia 1995. Canberra: International Social Science Survey, Institute of Advanced Studies, Australian National University.
McLanahan, Sara. 1985. "Family Structure and the Reproduction of Poverty." American Journal of Sociology 90: 873-901.
Seltzer, Judith. 1994. "Consequences of Marital Dissolution for Children." Annual Review of Sociology 20: 235-266
Webster, Andrew. 1995. "Recent Trends in Divorce: Duration-specific Divorce Rates, 1977-1993, Australia." Australian Bureau of Statistics, Demography Working Paper 95/1.
Tables
Table 1: Frequencies:
"How many children have you ever had?" "... Children born to you" Valid Cum Value Percent Percent Percent .00 21.2 21.9 21.9 1.00 8.9 9.2 31.1 2.00 28.4 29.3 60.5 3.00 20.9 21.6 82.1 4.00 10.7 11.0 93.1 5.00 4.1 4.2 97.3 6.00 2.6 2.7 100.0 . 3.2 Missing ------- ------- Total 100.0 100.0 Mean = 2.140 Std dev = 1.554 N = 2263 Missing cases 75 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -"Step-children who lived with you for a year or more" Valid Cum Value Percent Percent Percent .00 91.6 94.3 94.3 1.00 2.8 2.9 97.2 2.00 1.7 1.7 98.9 3.00 .7 .7 99.6 4+ .3 .3 99.9 . 2.9 Missing ------- ------- Total 100.0 100.0 Mean = .102 Std dev = .477 N = 2271 Missing cases 67 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -"Other stepchildren who visited regularly" Valid Cum Value Percent Percent Percent .00 93.6 96.6 96.6 1.00 1.2 1.2 97.8 2.00 1.5 1.5 99.3 3.00 .2 .2 99.6 4.00 .4 .5 100.0 . 3.1 Missing ------- ------- Total 100.0 100.0 Mean = .067 Std dev= .407 N = 2265 Missing = 73
Table 2: MeansProportion who had any step children lived with them for a year or more (coded 0 or 1). b: Others Total: a. Lived in Visited a or b -------------- ------------ ------ Mean StDev Mean StDev Mean StDv All .0565 .2309 .0345 .1826 .08 .27 Age <30 .0200 .1403 .0080 .0893 .02 .14 Women .0074 .0857 .0074 .0857 .01 .09 Men .0351 .1848 .0088 .0937 .04 .18 Age: 30s .0576 .2333 .0532 .2247 .09 .28 Women .0569 .2321 .0935 .2917 .11 .31 Men .0585 .2353 .0049 .0698 .06 .24 Age: 40s .0526 .2235 .0283 .1661 .07 .26 Women .0240 .1534 .0480 .2142 .06 .25 Men .0820 .2749 .0082 .0903 .09 .28 Age: 50s .0886 .2845 .0462 .2101 .11 .32 Women .0718 .2587 .0721 .2593 .11 .31 Men .1075 .3106 .0165 .1277 .12 .32 Age: 60s .0575 .2332 .0288 .1674 .07 .26 Women .0544 .2276 .0272 .1633 .06 .24 Men .0602 .2387 .0301 .1714 .08 .27 Age: 70+ .0474 .2130 .0292 .1687 .07 .26 Women .0333 .1803 .0250 .1568 .05 .22 Men .0584 .2353 .0325 .1778 .09 .29 N = 2338, Missing = 166 or 7.1 Pct
Table 3: Means on causal variablesDescription: Variables in the OLS regression analyses: Mean StDev Label a PQ .74 .44 Spouse or de facto b OWNKID 2.14 1.55 Children born to you c STEPLIVE .10 .48 # Live-in stepchildren d STEPVIST .07 .41 # Visiting stepchildren e STEPANY .08 .27 any c or d (0 or 1) f EVERDIV .11 .31 Ever divorced g SPPREDIV .08 .27 Wed to a divorce(e) h AGE 49.03 15.82 Age (years) i MALE .49 .50 Male (=1) j EDUC 11.89 3.01 Education (years) k OCCSTAT 55.06 27.68 Occup status (if miss: =spouse or 1st job) l FAMINC 47.86 42.19 Family income ($A 000's) m LNCHATT .79 1.81 Church going: ln(#days) n CBELIEF 54.99 29.09 Christian belief (std NSSS vsn) o CATHNOW .20 .40 Relig now: Catholic p SATLIFE 68.95 18.30 Satisfied? Life q SATMONEY 62.35 18.01 Satisfied? $, 2-item scale r SHOBBY 66.42 19.22 Satisfied? Hobbies s SJOB1 61.10 22.77 Satisfied? Job t SPURPOSE 65.39 20.92 Satisfied? Purpose u SMARR 77.72 21.98 Satisfied? Marriage v SKIDS 82.93 18.32 Satisfied? Children Minimum Pairwise N of Cases = 1422
Table 4: Regression4A: Regression model predicting the number of live-in stepchildren and visitor stepchildren. Live-in Visitor stepchildren stepchildren ---------------- -------------- Variable B SE Beta B SE Beta PQ .06* .02 .05 .03* .02 .04 EVERDIV .22* .04 .14 .16* .03 .12 SPPREDIV .49* .04 .27 .42* .03 .27 AGE .00 .00 .02 .00 .00 .02 MALE .06* .02 .06 -.06* .02 -.08 EDUC -.00 .00 -.00 -.00 .00 -.03 OCCSTAT -.00 .00 -.01 .00 .00 .01 FAMINC -.00 .00 -.01 .00 .00 .04 LNCHATT .01 .01 .03 -.00 .01 -.02 CBELIEF -.00 .00 -.02 .00 .00 .02 CATHNOW -.03 .03 -.02 -.01 .02 -.01 Constant -.01 .08 .01 .07 Multiple R .34 .34 R Square .12 .12 Adjusted R Square .11 .11 Standard Error .45 .38 F = 22.41 22.61 Signif F = .00 .00============================================= 4B: Standardized regression coefficients predicting satisfaction with different aspects of life. Life $ Hobby Job Purpose Spouse Kids STEPLIVE -.05* -.05* .01 .00 -.02 -.03 -.06* STEPVIST -.02 -.02 -.03 -.00 -.02 .03 -.03 EVERDIV .02 -.03 .02 .02 .02 -.01 -.03 SPPREDIV -.02 -.02 -.01 -.04 -.02 -.04 -.01 PQ .14* .10* .05* .05* .07* .19* .06* OWNKID .00 -.04 -.02 .11* .05* -.05 .04 AGE .03 .08 .06* .05 .03 -.03 -.16* MALE -.01 .00 .00 -.00 -.01 .05* -.08* EDUC -.01 -.06* .01 .03 .04 -.06 -.06 OCCSTAT .11* .13* .07* .14* .06* .03 .07* FAMINC .08* .25* -.00 .11* .08* -.01 -.01 LNCHATT .12* .08* .03 .06* .18* .12* .03 CBELIEF .02 -.01 .06* -.00 .04 .01 .01 CATHNOW -.03 -.01 -.03 -.01 -.06* -.05* -.01 Mult R .26 .34 .13 .29 .27 .23 .20 R**2 .07 .12 .02 .08 .07 .05 .04 Adj R**2 .06 .11 .01 .07 .07 .04 .03 Std Error 18 17 19 22 20 21 18
Survey Information on the ISSS/A 1995.
The results presented here are from a preliminary sample from the 1995
survey, which was conducted in April through December. The preliminary sample has the
first 2,223 cases (the final sample will have a few hundred cases more). Past ISSS/A
surveys which have had completion rates around 60% to 65%; closely match the population in
all characteristics that can be compared to the census (Bean 1991); and show no systematic
difference between the last few hundred cases and the rest of the sample. There is no
reason to expect the present survey to differ from previous ones in these respects.
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