單親家長扮演著既當(dāng)?shù)之?dāng)媽、既要工作還要兼職的多重角色獨(dú)自

1、Single-parent Family: Social Assistance for Marginal Groups By Xu AnqiInstitute of SociologyShanghai Academy of Social Sciences. Background of Researcha. Divorce rate keeps increasing since the end of 1970sIn China, divorce rate was so low in the past that 1980 only witnessed 0.341 million couples i

2、n divorce cases, accounting for 0.35 of the years average population but 2002 saw a high number of 1.177 couples in divorce cases hitting a gross divorce rate of 0.92 , which shows an increase of almost three folds. Divorce rate()Charter1. Divorce rate tendency in China in general and in Shanghai in

3、 particular during 1980-2002b. Status of divorce and one-parent still suffers from secular prejudice and cultural repulsionToward conflicts between couples, traditional Chinese culture took such an attitude as to “ be willing to pull down a temple rather than to destroy a wedlock” and “ the descent

4、does not divorce while the divorced is not descent.” And for a long tome, in the ideological area high divorce rate has been regarded as the reflection in familial relation of the gradually collapsing capitalism and the land-sliding moral. In consequence, the one-parent family negatively labeled in

5、most cases not only troubled the fame and profession of the person involved but was also deemed as the familial origin of juvenile crime and one of factors influencing social stability. One-parent family was also often linked to “irresponsible parents”, “flawed education” and “troublesome children”.

6、 Though as time passes the societys tolerance has been increasing (especially in modernized big cities like Shanghai etc), the psychological pressure upon one-parent family imposed by the inveterate and silently transforming cultural norm is still more than that in western countries.c. Radical chang

7、e in the economic structure of the transitional period sharpens social divisionThe transformation of economic institution and the readjustment of industrial structure caused an increase of middle-aged parents, who are laid off, waiting for employment, jobless or in lack of social security, which wil

8、l eventually engrave the difficult conditions or vulnerability of one-parent families. Moreover, divorced fathers/mothers with un-grownup children are generally middle-aged people, who have experienced more pains of being laid off, early retirement, unemployment, unstable employment or professional

9、falling in class. Lacking specific training and skills, most of them are difficult to be reemployed. Even if they are reemployed, they cannot find high-salary jobs. With the weakening of social security provided by the state and work units for education, med-care, and pension etc, the proportion inc

10、reased of low welfare level of some middle and old aged one-parent family.d. Lack of related studies on and policy for the group one-parent familiesThis is focally embodied in the facts that there are scarcities of related state statistics and multi-disciplinary studies, the policy of economic suppo

11、rt does not explicitly put one-parent family into the list of those to be supported and guaranteed, and the related legal regulations are not complete and perfect. In addition to this, in a community badly in want of service resources and self-help organizations for the one-parented, one-parent fami

12、ly is still considered to be a deviate state and in need of humanitarian care from the society. Empirical StudyTo determine if one-parent family belongs to the vulnerable group, one must define the vulnerable group before all else. Some scholars choose economic perspective to view the vulnerable gro

13、up as a part of the poor group, thinking that out of various external and internal reasons those whose ability is bounded to resist natural disasters and market risks become poor or potentially poor group of the population handicapped both in production and in life (Shen, 1998). A scholar writes，“ f

14、rom sociological perspective, the vulnerable group is a community of groups encountered with barriers and difficulties in life and is not adaptable to the social reality. The inadaptability resulted from the radical transformation of the societal structure and disordered social relationships or cert

15、ain reasons in some of the social members themselves (such as failure in competition, unemployment, aging and weakness, and deformity etc” (Qian, 2002). Some academicians consider that the vulnerable group is one that is disadvantageously positioned in the society because of some obstacles in physic

16、al ability and intellectual ability etc or shortage of economic, political, and social opportunities (Li, 2001; Wang, 2002) while some define the group as the community of population in need of care, love and support from others (Zhao et al., 2002). Yang (2001) pointed out that the vulnerable group

17、can be defined from such angles as whether it has lost the human capital with market competing capability, whether it feels it hard to integrate into the social life of the its specific region and to enjoy equal civil rights as other groups, whether it is far from the center of social power, and the

18、 settled evaluation of the society upon social groups. Sun Liping expounded three levels of connotation of the vulnerable group: 1.in poor state of material life; 2. in disadvantaged position in market competition; 3. in want of resources to express and pursue group interests on social and political

19、 level (cited from Yuan, 2002).Synthesizing the fore-mentioned connotations and extensions of concepts, we define the vulnerable group as the socially low group that is in economic poverty, cultural exclusion, and margin of power because of personal scarcity of natural and social resources or defect

20、s of social structure / policy. According to this definition, one-parent family is in conformity with the basic features of vulnerable periphery groups. Some American documents also hold the opinion that divorce inflicts negative impact on the divorcees and their children. Since Weitzman (1985) brou

21、ght to light the fact that the living standard of divorced women and their children had fallen by 73% in average while that of husbands had risen by 42% in average, living standard has been used as one of the most important indicators to measure the welfare of one-parent family. Some research shows

22、that quantity of income is generally in positive proportion with adaptability (Berman et al., 1981; Gove et al., 1989), and most studies found that the children from families of higher economic status behave better (Ambert, 1982; Grief et al., 1990). Some academicians think that marriage might be a

23、more important economic source than university diploma. The average income of a couple with only high school diplomas is 10% higher than that of a single parent of one-parent with university diploma (Whitehead, 1997). Economic resources is the most essential factor influencing the single parents ada

24、ptability to life as one with lower income, shouldering heavier burden of life, is worse in adaptability and more distressed in aspects such as childrens education and cultivation etc (Gove et al., 1989; Grief et al., 1990). Lacking family economic resources also affects childrens level of nutrition

25、 and health, and makes the single parent unable to purchase home teaching services, instructing toys, books, and family computers etc helpful to the childrens academic progress, or forces such families to settle down in communities with poorer school facilities and living environment (Williams, 1990

26、; McLanahan, 1989). Investigation on one-parent families in Shanghai and Nanjing in China also shows that about 50% of separately living parents have not bourn the cost fostering the children and the living standard of quite a number of one-parent families have dropped (Xu et al., 2001; Wang, 2002).

27、The following illustration will make use of materials of in-door interviews made of 500 parents, 440 single parents (of these 332 divorced and 108 lost spouses) and their children. The interviews were conducted by multi-stepped and multi-leveled probability sample method in 50 residents committees o

28、f 11 districts in Shanghai in 2002.a. Lack of economic resourcesAccording to our investigation into the demographic and economic features of 500 couples of double-parents families and 440 single parents (including former husbands / wives of divorced single parents, the interviewees of different fami

29、lial structures are not evidently divergent in educational level, nor obviously differing in occupational level. They are, however, apparently different in aspects such as current position status, annual income, ownership of house property rights, and reception of social sponsoring etc, and the disa

30、dvantage of one-parent family is focally reflected on employment competition and economic gains and profits (see Table 1 ).Table 1. Economic resources of men and women of different familial structures（N=940）Double-parent familyOne-parent familymenwomenmenwomenEmployment status（%）Employed and on post

31、66.837.546.029.0Laid off / reemployed after retirement17.821.825.626.3Laid off / waiting / ill / retired15.440.628.444.7Annual income（Yuan）1867711614118419373Owning house property rights（%）48.448.820.428.8Reception of social sponsoring（%）77.364.894.494.4N250250206233This resulted before all else fro

32、m the fact that high-techs and information society favor the young and the more educated while the years of ravage worsened the disadvantage of middle aged single parents in education, skills and information. In addition to this, those single parents with un-grown up children are largely middle-aged

33、 people, who are in want of human capital for market competition and hard to be reemployed. Even if they are reemployed, it is difficult for them to find high-salaried positions. The bigger part of them has experienced the labor pains of being laid off, early retirement, unemployment, unstable occup

34、ation or degrading of occupational level.Secondly, because single parents play the multiple roles, father and mother in one, independently shouldering the burden to foster children and spending double time / energy on child caring and coaching, many have failed to fully dedicate themselves to work a

35、nd to receive whole-life education, or have abandoned some high-salaried occupations or have lost chances of promotion for the sake of child caring.Moreover, the loss and division of property and saving in dismantled marriage increased the societys burden. One the one hand, some single parents poor

36、occupational condition and income are influenced by the loss of human capital and economic resources in family crises and deformation, for instance, the tension and worry from marital conflicts, both mental and physical fatigues caused by long-term taking care of gravely ill / handicapped spouses, p

37、sychological wounds brought upon by the spouse death, and loss, shortage and expenditure increase etc arising from conflicts/separately living / family division. On the other hand, their condition is closely related to their singly shouldering the burden to foster and educate the children and the ov

38、er-weight load of occupation. The following narratives of the interviewees can help us learn that the single parents inadequacy of economic resources does not necessarily originate from their own quality and disability, but it is rather relevant to social prejudice and the structural pressure of one

39、-parent family. A fairly big number of them are usually innocent, incapable or helpless. “I was a cabdriver previously, earning stable income. But because of her bad-behavior I was in bad mood. I could no longer drive cab for fear of accidents. I became a guard and my income decreased a lot.”“After

40、divorce that guy often came to quarrel with me on my bus, so I couldnt manage my work as a conductor. That led to bad opinion of my supervisors over me and I was fired.” “In the past, both husband and wife fostered a kid. Now it is on one person. The kid spends more and more but I earn less. Previou

41、sly I was head of a shop, a sort of manager. Now I cannot manage that, for I have to take care of the kid.”“In state-owned enterprises, family is an important factor in choosing carders. My failure of marriage made bad impression of the leaders on me. They thought I am not serious with life. I misse

42、d the chance of promotion.” “I was in the same unit with the man. We got divorced only a year after wedding. Feeling shameful in my unit, I resigned.”“I raise the kid by myself. I was on a three shafts job, so I have to apply for being laid off.”“Because of the child, I cant leave the job too late,

43、not mention going out in the evening. I have no time for further schooling.” “As a sailor on a far-ocean ship, I earned fairly high income when sailing our on the sea. But after divorce, if going out on the sea for a long time, I cant look after the child. I talked with my former wife asking her to

44、take care of the kid when I was absent, and I would pay her one thousand Yuan per month, but she didnt agree. I had to apply for working on land instead of sailing out, and I lose several thousand Yuan a month.”“My former unit has been very good in economic effects and profits. Because my wife got c

45、ancer at the time and needed my care, I transferred to her unit but now the unit is not good in economic effects and profits and I face being laid off.” “I had been doing electronic game business together with him before he fell in affairs with his apprentices girlfriendHe sold all the seven game ma

46、chines for about RMB 50000 and dragged away all the cashes through a thorough search of the wardrobe and went out the t girl enjoying themselves. After he left, people came for debt and I returned over RMB 10000 for him with all my savingNow I have to be a cleaner of the community to earn RMB 400 a

47、month”To look at the childrens living standard, one sees that one-parent family spends RMB 6942 on children on average in a year, only accounting for 83% of that of double-parent family. Of the sum of money, spending on meals, clothes etc at home is 87% of that of double-parent family while spending

48、 on additional courses, training, and home teaching 50% and spending on reference books, stationary etc 78%. b. Welfare fellThere is evident difference in average annual income per capita among families of different structures and what is more, the law cannot easily guarantee the children from divor

49、ced families the money for fostering (53% of the mothers living separately and 44% of the fathers living separately do not bear the money for fostering, and 85% of female guardians and 81% of male guardians complain that they fail to receive the fostering money or the money is too little). This not

50、only lowers the childrens economic welfare but also directly affects the guardians life quality. 18% of the interviewees think that material living standard “obviously fell” after divorce or loss of spouse and 33% recount that “somewhat fell” (all together 51%). Because of independently bear the bur

51、den of social competition, fostering children, and heavy housework, some single parents cannot bear psychological pressure and their satisfaction of life quality drops. The result of test on satisfaction of life quality and psychological pressure of interviewees from families of different structures

52、 also shows that the single parents subjective feeling on welfare is apparently worse than the double-parent objects of the study (see Table 2). Table 2. Life quality and psychological pressure of the objects of the study from families of different structures（on average） One-parent familyDouble-pare

53、nt familyF-testMaterial life2.673.2886.55*Spare-time life 2.813.3058.19*Spiritual life3.083.79130.16*Heavy burden of housework2.623.40122.62*Pressure of childrens education2.052.6563.02*Insomnia 2.963.3025.21*Sense of exhaustion2.753.1227.11*Sense of loneliness3.093.77166.51*Melancholy and depressed

54、 mood2.813.2952.51*Doubt about bad words on back3.743.8815.51*Sense of humbleness3.613.747.90*Sense of failure in life3.01 3.4239.00*Sense of happiness2.823.86 303.49*p .05. *p .01. *p .001.The following narratives by interviewees show that quite a part of the causes cannot be attributed to the sing

55、le parents personal quality and ability: “He died from stomach cancer and left me a lot of debt. The child needs nourishment for growth while educational expenses become higher and higher now, but I have only RMB 300 from social security fund. How hard my life is! .” “After divorce, I still live in

56、my house with my child, but I must pay my ex-husband more than RMB 30000, and so I must repay debts every month. I live a very hard life, and economize every meal even every food and soup”.“My husband was captured by another woman. To get divorced, I abandoned all our possessions, so I have nothing,

57、 even a house. In partition of the common properties, the judge did protect me, a vulnerable person, though he saw how difficult I was”.“After divorce, my ex-wife took our money and all possessions away, so much as to cut apiece or threw out my clothes, Now I havent a bean although the court decided

58、 that my ex-wife must pay me RMB 40 every month as my childs cost of living”.“I did business with my ex-husband and we gained over RMB 200,000 at least, but I did not handle the pocket. Afterwards, he cohabited illegally with another woman and told me a lie that our money had been lent to my friends or in arrears. I asked him to show me the receipts for loan or due bills, but he said to me that he felt it embarrassing