Single-mother Families in Canada

The absence of a partner typically leaves single-parent families more vulnerable to socio-economic and health disadvantages than two-parent families. The large and growing proportion of single-parent families headed by women in Canada warrants a closer examination of this family structure. The following presents a review of the current socio-economic conditions and health status of single-mother families in Canada.

Demographic trends of single-mother families in Canada were tabulated using data from the 1996 Canadian Census. Relevant published reports by the Canadian government and private not-for-profit agencies, and Canadian published articles over the past ten years (PubMed, Medline, PsycINFO, and CINAHL) were reviewed. Search terms used included "single mother", "single parent", "lone mother", and "lone parent".

The term "single parent" includes persons who were never married, or who are separated, divorced, not currently living with a legal or common-law spouse, or widowed with children. Statistics Canada's definition is broader in that it includes single-parent families regardless of the children's age. Therefore, this definition includes groups of single-mother families that are veiy different from the majority of single-mother families with children under 18 that are the focus of most studies.

Demographics

Although two-parent families still constitute the largest majority of households in Canada, the number of single-parent families has been increasing over the past decades. In 1981, 11% of all families were single-parent families compared to 14.5% in 1996.' In 1996, single mothers headed five in every six (84%) single-parent families. Between 1981 and 1996, the proportion of single-mother families continued to increase at a slightly faster pace (29.4%) than single-father families (24.4%).' While the largest proportion of single mothers are divorced (Figure I),2 there are a growing proportion that are younger and have never been married (Figure 2).

Poverty

Poverty rates for single-mother families have remained unacceptably high over the past two decades. The 1999 poverty rate of 51.8% for single mothers was almost threefold higher than that for single fathers (18%); and fivefold higher than the rate (10.4%) for couples with children (Figure 3).1 Furthermore, single-mother families were almost three times as likely to depend solely on welfare and more likely to live in poverty for an extended time period than two-parent families.3

Despite Canada's commitment to eliminate child poverty by the year 2000, the proportion...