Kristin Anderson Moore, Laura Lippman, Camille WhitneyChild TrendsBrad WilcoxUniversity of Virginia

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The WFMP has three primary intellectual goals: Monitoring the health of marriage &

family around the globe Analyzing the social, cultural, and

economic forces affecting marriage & family across the world

Explaining how strong families foster child well-being around the globe

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What are the unique strengths & challenges facing families, not just in the Western world, but also in the non-Western world? The extended family in Africa, Asia, & the

Middle East HIV-AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa

How can we help indigenous groups & organizations build on these strengths & face these challenges? 3

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The World Family Map Prototype serves 3 important purposes: Provides a model of the kinds of data

monitoring & analysis the WFMP is capable of

Provides an overview of 3 key global family trends

Affords a sense of the project’s potential

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The World Family Map Project will report on four types of family indicators:

Family structureFamily cultureFamily processFamily economics

After reviewing the available data, 3 key global family indicators were selected for the prototype report:

Family structure – Children living with two biological parents

Family culture – Attitudes toward marriage

Family process – Domestic Violence

How data sources were selected: Representing regions of the world Several indicators in the data set Rigorous and repeated measures over

time Comparable across countries

Surveys with same items and data collection procedures across countries

Or, data are harmonized across countries

How we selected countries: Regional representation Developing and developed

countries Data available for desired time

period

Motivation: A large body of social scientific evidence

indicates children in the U.S. do best with both biological parents.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child holds a child shall have “as far as possible, the right to know and be cared for by his or her parents.”

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Measure: The percentage of children living with two probable biological parents

Countries (16) Asia: China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia Europe: Great Britain, Spain, Sweden Latin America: Colombia, Mexico, Peru Middle East: Egypt North America: Canada, United States Oceania: Australia Sub-Saharan Africa: Nigeria, South Africa

Data sources: Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), Census data (IPUMS), plus country sources: circa year 2000

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Possible explanations for why higher proportions of children live with both biological parents in Asia and the Middle East than in other regions: Asian and Middle Eastern countries retain more

traditional family structure and are more family oriented

Sub-Saharan Africa: HIV-AIDS has orphaned many children; fathers migrate to work and kinship system has strong maternal focus

N. America/Europe/Oceania are more individualistic Latin America has history of informal unions and

increasing single parenthood

Motivation: Much of the developed world is in the

midst of an international retreat from marriage marked by increases in cohabitation, divorce, illegitimacy, and lifelong singleness

Are these demographic shifts paralleled by declines in public support for marriage?

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Measure: Percentage of adults who disagree that “marriage is an outdated institution”

Countries (20) Asia: China, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Singapore Europe: Great Britain, Spain, Sweden Latin America: Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Peru Middle East: Egypt, Saudi Arabia North America: Canada, United States Oceania: Australia, New Zealand Sub-Saharan Africa: Nigeria, South Africa

Source: World Values Survey, circa year 2000

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Findings in context of other patterns and research Countries with more economic development and

individualistic ethos tend to have lower rates of marriage

Religion is one likely source of variation in rates of support for marriage▪ Egypt, Indonesia, and the U.S. have higher rates of

support and more religious populations

History of high cohabitation rates in parts of Latin America and maternal focus of families in Sub-Saharan Africa

Motivation: Witnessing or experiencing physical

violence in the home is associated with a range of social and psychological problems among children

The international community is largely united in its moral opposition to domestic violence

High rates of exposure to domestic violence reported by youth

Measure: Percentage of youth (ages 9-18) reporting violence at home

Countries Conducted in over 70 countries Only in the regions of East Asia and the

Pacific, Europe, and Latin America

Data Source: UNICEF children’s opinion polls, 1999-2001

High rates of exposure to domestic violence reported by youth

Findings in context of other research Economic: poverty is associated with domestic

violence, which could help explain higher rates in less developed countries

Cultural: Higher rates in Latin America may be related to culture of “machismo”, and in East Asia and the Pacific to cultural traditions of patriarchal authority

Legal: laws banning corporal punishment appear to have reduced rates of corporal punishment in Europe, and may also have reduced the prevalence of domestic violence

High rates of exposure to domestic violence reported by youth

Motivation for choosing this analysis The WFMP Advisors chose to focus on

education for this first analysis Education is one of the most important

outcomes for children It is one of the United Nations

Millennium Goals to achieve universal primary education

Measures for analysis Outcome: Whether secondary school-

age youth (11-14) are enrolled in school Predictor: Number of the youth’s

biological parents in the householdData Source

Demographic and Health Surveys▪ Data from most recent year for each country

Countries and years included in the analysis Egypt – 2000 India – 2005-06 Kenya – 2003 Nigeria – 2003 Peru – 2000 Colombia – 2005

Does the # of biological parents at home relate to school attendance?

Hypothesis 1: Two biological parents are better than one Youth living with two biological parents

will attend school at higher rates than those living with one

Hypothesis 2: Mother knows best Youth living with one biological parent will

attend school at higher rates than those living with two

Hypothesis 3: Parents don’t matter

Discussion of the findings Why is living with a single biological parent a

disadvantage ONLY in Colombia, after controls?▪ Family structure may be less related to school

attendance than other factors in developing countries▪ Single parents in Africa and Asia may tend to control

resources and devote them to children▪ Single parents may be getting help from extended

family, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia▪ Biological fathers may be less involved in their children’s

education in some countries, compared to intact families in North America

Living with no biological parent is a disadvantage compared to with living with 2 bio parents across the globe. As this % increases, we must monitor its effects.

The WFMP will assemble an International Board of Advisors

The WFMP will launch its inaugural World Family Map © in late 2010 or early 2011.

The project will release periodic indicator reports as well as about 2 analytical briefs each year

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