Love and mobility among separated families – a pre study Distances to children in separated families – the case of Sweden

Olle Stjernström Ph D, senior lecturerDepartment of social and economic geographyUmeå UniversitySweden

A long way from home…

The question…

How do separated and reconstituted families move?

Constrains?

Opportunities?

Strategies?

Legality?

The pre-study…

• Cross sectional data from ASTRID

• All children in Sweden in the ages 0-18 years 1990 and 2003

• About 2 million children in each sample

• Parents• Every individual

in the data set is located to a 100-meter square

Data set…

• All children 1990 and 2003– Year of birth– Sex– County and municipality– 100-m square

coordinates• Parents

– Year of birth– Sex– Location (100-m square– Disposal income– Education– Family status

• Children and parents are linked together via an ID even if they don’t live in the same household

• If children and parents lives in the same 100-m square = same household

Theoretical considerations and assumptions

• Time-geography– Social-physical constraints

(Holm et al 1989, Åqvist 1992)

• Second demographic transition– (Kuijsten 1996, Lesthaege

1995)

• Theories regarding mobility strategies

Separated and reconstituted?

Single persons

Living together + children

Marriage + children

New relation/marriageNew partner with or without children

One-adult household with children (permanently or occasionally)

DivorceSeparation

What about the children?What about the migration decisions in the new households?

Mother Father

Reconstituted household with a) children from former relationship(s) b) children in the current relationship

Household A1 Household A2

Household B1 Household B2

Separations and divorces (in Sweden)

year

Numbers

Divorces

Separations

Divorces

The mean number of divorces per marriage in a given year. Source: Eurostat

0

0,5

1

1,5

2

2,5

3

Denmar

k

Irelan

dIta

ly

Nether

lands

Sweden

EU25

Countries

Div

orc

e ra

te

2000

2005

Descriptive results, distance between children and parents

Share of children living in the same 100-m square as the father and/or the mother 1990 by ages. N=1 950655

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Age

%

Mother

Father

Distances continued…

Share of children living in the same 100-m square as the father and/or the mother 2003 by ages. N=2 015258

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Age

%

Mother

Father

Increase or decrease?

Share of children living in the same 100-m square as the father 1990 and 2003 by ages. N 1990=1 950655, N 2003=2 015258

70

75

80

85

90

95

100

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Age

%

Father -90

Father -03

Increase or decrease?

Share of children living in the same 100-m square as the mother 1990 and 2003 by ages. N 1990=1 950655, N 2003=2 015258

80

82

84

86

88

90

92

94

96

98

100

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Age

%

Mother -90

Mother -03

Distance to father 1990

Share of children by distance-class in relation to the residential 100 m-square of father 1990 by childrens age. N=1 950655

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Age

%

0,001-0,5 km

0,5-5 km

5,1-50 km

50,1-250 km

More than 250 km

Distance to father 2003

Share of children by distance-class in relation to the residential 100 m-square of father 2003 by childrens age. N=2 015258

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Age

%

0,001-0,5 km

0,5-5 km

5,1-50 km

50,1-250 km

More than 250 km

Distance to mother 1990

Share of children by distance-class in relation to the residential 100 m-square of mother 1990 by childrens age. N=1 950655

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Age

%

0,001-0,5 km

0,5-5 km

5,1-50 km

50,1-250 km

More than 250 km

Distance to mother 2003

Share of children by distance-class in relation to the residential 100 m-square of mother 2003 by childrens age. N=2 015258

0

0,5

1

1,5

2

2,5

3

3,5

4

4,5

5

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Age

%

0,001-0,5 km

0,5-5 km

5,1-50 km

50,1-250 km

More than 250 km

Regional differences in distance to father

• The longer distances are over-represented in the north of Sweden.

• Shorter distances are over-represented in larger cities and dense populated areas.

• Possible explanations– Labour market– Housing market– Daily commuting service– The size of the local labour-market

Education level among the fathers and distance to children

• Fathers with low education tend to move further away from the children than fathers with high education.

• Possible explanations– Low income levels for low educated

fathers reduces the alternatives.– Higher educated has better

opportunities to have flexible work days (weeks).

– Higher educated develops alternative mobility strategies like weekly commuting.

– Higher educated have better opportunities on a local labour market.

Chain reactions and migration(or big family syndrome)

Household 1

M+3 kids

F+ 1 kid

Household 2

M+1 kid

F+3 kids

Household 3

M+ 2 kids

F+ 1 kid

Household 4

M

F+ 2 kids

Household 5

M+ 1 kid

A migration decision in one of the households will directly affect all the other households daily life

Implications and conclusions• About 525 000 or 25% of the children lives with

only one parent (2003). One-adult or reconstituted households.

• About 36% of all children in the age of 17 lives with one parent (2003).

• 45 000 children experienced a divorce or separation during 2003.

• 84% of the separated fathers lives close to their children (50 km) in 2003.

• Having children in another household may affect the migration mobility.

• Low education among separated parents tend to extend the distances between parents and children

• The size and structure of the local labour market affects the distance between separated parents and children

Further studies…

• Yes!• A longitudinal study 1985-

2003– Life course events– Separations and migration in

focus

• Regression models

• Thank You!