Title: Households after divorce: the availability of resources and their impact on children.

POPLINE Document Number: 201658

Author(s):

Maclean M

Source citation:

In: Give and take in families: studies in resource distribution, [edited by] Julia Brannen and Gail Wilson. London, England, Allen and Unwin, 1987. :42-55.

Abstract:

This study investigates both the finances of divorced men trying to support 2 households and those of mother-headed 1st families in poverty. A screening question was added to an omnibus survey of 7000 individuals representative of the adult population in England and Wales in 1981. The authors were unprepared for the clarity of the findings. They found a clear move into poverty for non-remarried women with custody of children on divorce, taking reliance on welfare as an indicator of life at the margins of poverty. Of the 52 single parents, none were reliant on welfare payments when they 1st married, 15% reported welfare as their main source of income when they separated, 46% when the divorce came through, and 56% when they were interviewed up to 10 years after the divorce. This final figure offers a sharp contrast to that of 15% on welfare for divorced parents who had remarried. Private transfers of income occurred between households after divorce almost invariably only where there were children, even if these children had already reached independence and moved away. The authors did not find any instance of alimony paid to a childless wife. 2 groups experienced economic problems after divorce: 1) the non-remarried custodial parents with dependent children, and 2) the older mothers, that is, women whose work histories had been affected by child rearing even after the children reached economic independence. In contrast, 2 groups of respondents appeared relatively economically unaffected: 1) the childless divorcees, and 2) the remarried, with children from a 1st marriage or a subsequent marriage, or both.

Keywords:

England
Wales
Divorce
Households
Family and Household
Resource Allocation
Social Welfare
Child
One Parent Family
Poverty
United Kingdom
Europe, Western
Europe
Developed Countries
Nuptiality
Financial Activities
Economic Factors
Youth
Age Factors
Population Characteristics
Demographic Factors
Population
Family Characteristics
Socioeconomic Factors