Roderic Beaujot

Models of Time Use in Paid and Unpaid Work

Models of time use need to consider especially the reproductive and productive activities of women and men. For husband-wife families, the breadwinner, one-earner, or complementary-roles model has advantages in terms of efficiency or specialization and stability; however, it is a high-risk model for women and children. The alternate model has been called two-earner, companionship, “new families,” or collaborative in the sense of spouses collaborating in the paid and unpaid work needed to provide for and care for the family. Adopting the common metric of time use to study paid and unpaid work, we find that the complementary-roles model remains the most common, and the “double burden” is the second most frequent; however, there is some evidence of change in the direction of shared-roles arrangements, especially for younger couples with children, when both are employed full-time.

Marriage and Cohabitation: Demographic and Socioeconomic Differences in Quebec and Canada

Cohabitation has become so prevalent in Canada that it is now the most common mode of entry into conjugality. Yet in drawing comparisons across Canadian provinces, cohabitation is far more prevalent in the province of Quebec than elsewhere. With this in mind, the purpose of the current paper is three fold. First, we set out to briefly situate the recent growth in the number of common-law unions in Canada and Quebec into a broader historical and international context. Secondly, we review available information from the 2001 Census and the 1998 General Social Survey on some of the key socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of persons who cohabit relative to those that marry. Thirdly, we consider how these changes are important to public policy, and of direct interest to legislators and the Canadian legal system. Major differences are documented in comparing Quebec with elsewhere in Canada in terms of the education, labor force participation, median income, income poverty and homeownership. The differences documented between persons who marry relative to cohabiters are found to be much less in Quebec than elsewhere, in a context whereby cohabitation has become far more widespread, an observation with direct implications for public policy.

Family Relations, Low Income, and Child Outcomes: A Comparison of Canadian Children in Intact-, Step-, and Lone-Parent Families

This paper examines conditions that are more likely to lead to positive or negative child outcomes in intact, female lone-parent and reconstituted families. Family type is found to be more important than low income in predicting a set of behavioural, emotional, and psychological difficulties. After establishing measurement equivalence across family types, multiple group analysis using structural equation modelling shows that the explanatory factors also operate differently in the various family settings. In particular, low income has a significant impact on childhood difficulties in lone-parent and stepfamilies, but not in intact families. Family functioning has less impact on children’s outcomes in stepfamilies than in intact- or lone-parent families, and larger family size predicts negative child outcomes only in non-intact families. These observations can be interpreted in terms of the impact of family type on the transfer of financial, human, and social capital to children.

Children, Social Assistance and Outcomes: Cross National Comparisons

The prevalence of low income for children, especially for children in lone-parent families, varies considerably across countries. This paper considers five sets of hypotheses that may explain this cross-national variability of child poverty. The tentative conclusion from this analysis in 20 countries is that reducing child poverty, and in lone-parent families in particular, requires several approaches. Provisions that would discourage teenage childbearing would have their importance, as would opportunities for lone mothers to work. More important is the generosity of social expenditure applying to individuals and especially to families. The present analysis also shows the advantages of encouraging joint custody, along with special provisions for lone parents, and child support through advance maintenance payments.

Family Policies in Quebec and the Rest of Canada: Implications for Fertility, Child-Care, Women's Paid Work, and Child Development Indicators

Étant donné sa situation démographique particulière, et sa volonté de choisir lui-même son avenir, le Québec a adopté, avec le temps, des politiques familiales très différentes de celles du reste du Canada. Le Québec utilisant le droit civil (plutôt que le common law comme ailleurs au pays), le mariage n’y a pas le même caractère que dans les autres provinces, et d’autres formes d’unions y existent depuis assez longtemps. La popularité croissante de l’union libre ou union de fait (« cohabitation » en anglais) ainsi que l’attention plus importante portée aux questions familiales ont amené le Québec à se donner un modèle nordique alors que le reste du Canada a un modèle libéral. Les programmes québécois en matière de garde des enfants (depuis 1977) et de congés parentaux (depuis 2006) sont par exemple très différents de ce que l’on retrouve dans les autres provinces. Le modèle nordique a aussi permis au Québec d’éviter une fécondité particulièrement faible. Ses politiques en matière de garde d’enfants ont été conçues à la fois pour améliorer le bien-être des enfants et pour favoriser l’emploi des femmes. Les comparaisons que nous avons faites entre le Québec et d’autres provinces indiquent que l’emploi rémunéré chez les femmes a profité de ces mesures; en ce qui a trait aux indicateurs de développement des enfants, les conclusions sont moins positives – cela est peut-être dû aux faits que des programmes universels ne permettent pas de se consacrer autant qu’il le faudrait aux enfants de milieux défavorisés, chez lesquels une intervention précoce a beaucoup plus d’impact.

Currently married women with an unmet need for contraception in Eritrea: Profile and determinants

Eritrea’s contraceptive prevalence rate is one of the lowest in sub-Saharan Africa and its fertility has only started to decline. Using data from the 2002 Eritrea Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS), this study examines the determinants of unmet need for family planning that is the discrepancy between fertility goals and actual contraceptive use. More than one-quarter of currently married women are estimated to have an unmet need, and this has remained unchanged since 1995. The most important reason for unmet need is lack of knowledge of methods or of a source of supply. Currently married women with higher parity, and low autonomy, low or medium household economic status, and who know no method of contraception or source of supply are identified as the most likely to have an unmet need. Addressing the unmet need for family planning entails not merely greater knowledge of or access to contraceptive services, but also the enhancement of the status of women.

Self-employment among immigrants: a test of the blocked mobility hypothesis.

This paper investigates the differential self-employment propensities between the native-born immigrants with Canadian education and immigrants with no Canadian education. The blocked mobility or relative disadvantage thesis argues that relative disadvantages experienced by immigrants in the labor market in the host society cause many to turn to self-employment as an alternative to wage labor. Many immigrants are unfamiliar with the social economic and legal structures of the host society and encounter problems with languages non-recognition of their credentials and discrimination. Immigrants may therefore find it difficult to land a job in the core sectors of the economy especially if they do not have additional education or training in the host country. They therefore consider self-employment. Previous research into this issue has failed to distinguish between self-employment in professional and non-professional occupations. This paper reports findings from a study using 1986 census data for 8719 self-employed small business owners in non-professional occupations 7588 self-employed professionals and 128375 wage-earners. The data support the thesis with regard to immigrants with high educational credentials obtained from home countries. Such individuals are more likely than those of similar educational level among either the native-born or immigrants with Canadian education to become self-employed in non-professional occupations. At lower levels of education immigrants overall also have higher self-employment propensities in non-professional occupations than native-born Canadians. The authors point out that immigrants may have informal resources such as cheap and loyal ethnic labor the ability to make transactions in the native languages of immigrants information on immigrant preferences and links with the origin countries of immigrants which help in the establishment and running of small businesses. These findings suggest that self-employment represents real economic opportunity for immigrants.

Charting the Growth of Canada’s Aboriginal Populations: Problems, Options and Implications

Toward the end of the 20th century, the number of persons reporting Aboriginal ancestry in the Canadian Census increased in a rather dramatic manner. For example, in the 2001 Canadian Census, over 1.3 million Canadians reported an Aboriginal origin, which is an increase of about 20 percent over the previous census in 1996. Given that much confusion and inadequate information characterises public discussions of the demographics of Canada’s Aboriginal population, this paper will review the most fundamental data sources and definitions that have been used in documenting the characteristics of this population, as well as outline some of the most important obstacles to be faced in enacting meaningful quantitative research in this context.

Low Fertility in Canada: The Nordic Model in Quebec and the U.S. Model in Alberta

Among the factors that are responsible for low fertility, the risks experienced by young people are particularly relevant. In that context, it is noteworthy that fertility is rising most in Alberta and Quebec, that is in provinces where young families have had the security of either good job opportunities or supportive social policy. The fertility trend in Canada has seen a low point of 1.51 in 2002, rising to a total fertility rate of 1.66 in 2007. The trends and differences are placed in the context of family and work questions, including the division of paid and unpaid work by gender. By marital status, family structure and work orientation, fertility is highest for women and men who are married, with no step children and intermediate work orientation. We summarize the changing policy context, proposing that social policy has become more supportive of families with young children, especially in Quebec but also in the rest of Canada.

Family Change and Implicationsfor Family Solidarity and Social Cohesion

Social cohesion can be viewed in terms of common projects and networks of social relations that characterize families, communities and society. In the past decades, the basis for family cohesion has shifted from organic to mechanical or from breadwinner to collaborative model. As in many Western countries, data on family change in Canada point to a greater flexibility in the entry and exit from relationships, a delay in the timing of family events, and a diversity of family forms. After looking at changes in families and in the family setting of individuals, the paper considers both intra-family cohesion and families as basis for social cohesion. Implications are raised for adults, children and public policy.