Mother’s educational level and single motherhood: comparing Spain and Italy

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• dc.contributor.author Garriga, Anna
• dc.contributor.author Sarasa Urdiola, Sebastià
• dc.contributor.author Berta, Paolo
• dc.date.accessioned 2024-01-15T09:45:16Z
• dc.date.available 2024-01-15T09:45:16Z
• dc.date.issued 2015
• dc.description.abstract Background: During the second half of the 20th century there was a positive relationship between single parenthood and the mother’s educational level in Spain and Italy. Objective: However, several important transformations contemplated by Goode (1993) and McLanahan (2004) suggest that this relationship may have been inverted in Spain but perhaps not in Italy. The purpose of our study is to test this hypothesis. Methods: We use EU_SILC data from waves 2005 and 2011 and logistic regressions. Results: We found the relationship between the mother’s educational level and being a single mother is negative in Spain, while it is not significant in Italy. However, we found that for Italian mothers aged 40 and younger and mothers from northwest Italy, this relationship is also negative. By contrast, for older mothers and mothers from the islands or southern Italy, this association is positive. Meanwhile, for mothers from the central and northeast regions, the relationship between educational level and single motherhood is not significant. Conclusions: These results show how Spain and some parts of Italian society are moving towards family models similar to those in the Northern European countries. As Sara McLanahan (2004) noted for the United States, this social transformation in Southern Europe cannot be considered without recognizing the potential negative consequence for future generations. The single-mother households dealing with the economic crisis that started in 2008 have lower socioeconomic backgrounds than the single mothers who suffered through previous crises, and therefore the consequences of this crisis for children in single-parent families might be even more negative, especially in Spain.
• dc.description.sponsorship This research has been possible thanks to the grants provided by the European Research Council (Grant #269387), the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Grants CSO2013-43461-R and CSO2012-33476) and the Catalan Research Program RECERCAIXA 2012 (Grant # PRO8113) as well as the financial support to Anna Garriga from the Juan de la Cierva Postdoctoral Program of Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Government of Spain). A previous version of this article was presented at the Family Polarization Workshop, Barcelona, University Pompeu Fabra, March 28th, 2014. This workshop was organized by a project financed by an ERC (European Research Council) Advanced Grant on Family Polarization and Demographic Change directed by Gøsta Esping-Andersen.
• dc.format.mimetype application/pdf
• dc.identifier.citation Garriga A, Sarasa S, Berta P. Mother’s educational level and single motherhood: comparing Spain and Italy. Demographic Research. 2015 Dec;33(42):1165-210. DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2015.33.42
• dc.identifier.doi http://dx.doi.org/10.4054/DemRes.2015.33.42
• dc.identifier.issn 1435-9871
• dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10230/58679
• dc.language.iso eng
• dc.publisher Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
• dc.relation.ispartof Demographic Research. 2015 Dec;33(42):1165-210
• dc.relation.projectID info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/269387
• dc.relation.projectID info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/1PE/CSO2013-43461-R
• dc.relation.projectID info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/3PN/CSO2012-33476
• dc.rights © 2015 Anna Garriga, Sebastià Sarasa & Paolo Berta. This open-access work is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 2.0 Germany, which permits use, reproduction & distribution in any medium for non-commercial purposes, provided the original author(s) and source are given credit. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/de/.
• dc.rights.accessRights info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
• dc.rights.uri http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/de/
• dc.subject.other Mares
• dc.subject.other Cultura espanyola -- S. XX
• dc.subject.other Italià -- Ensenyament
• dc.subject.other Mares solteres
• dc.subject.other Educació
• dc.title Mother’s educational level and single motherhood: comparing Spain and Italy
• dc.type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
• dc.type.version info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion