The demographic, social, labour market and economic circumstances are changed from the mid to late 1980s when the CSS was introduced.
First, as in the 1980s, most children today are born into families where the parents are married or have a cohabiting relationship. Although marriage remains the most common relationship between parents, contemporary parents are more likely to be cohabiting than in the 1980s. There is evidence to suggest that cohabiting relationships are more likely than marriages to break down within five years of commencement, leading to sole parenthood for a period of time in a child’s life depending on whether or not the parent re-partners.
The proportion of blended families and step-families has increased since the 1980s. Children, now, have more probability of being cared for in a blended or step-family than they did in the 1980s. The circumstances are the same for sole-parent families. Although couple families continue to be the most usual family type, the incidence of sole parenthood as a proportion of all families has continued to rise since the 1980s. The increasing proportion of family types where two natural parents do not necessarily both live with their child(ren), clearly, can lead to more complex financial and shared caring arrangements between the different families and their children.
Today, the total fertility rate is lower and the age-specific fertility rates have shifted to older age groups than in the 1980s. This means that families tend to be smaller. The effect of smaller family size is to reduce caring responsibilities and lessen barriers to women’s continuing participation in the work force.
Participation in higher education has nearly doubled since 1987. Today, women are participating in higher education at record levels. Although a gender imbalance remains in a number of fields of study, overall, there are now more women than men participating in higher education. Higher levels of education are linked to better workforce outcomes and participation.
In addition, the present-day economy displays low levels of inflation, high employment and solid growth levels. There is more employment available now than in the 1980s as it was a period characterised by high unemployment levels and high inflation.
Among other things, good economic conditions, better education levels, lower fertility and changing attitudes to gender equity have led to one of the most marked shifts in the last two decades, where women have moved into the labour force in record numbers. Even women with children now participate at much greater levels than in the 1980s. Although their rates of participation remain lower than the average, both couple mothers and sole mothers have moved into the labour force, particularly into part-time work. As in the 1980s, but at much higher levels now, as their children get older, mothers are more likely to increase their labour force participation.
Although many of the social, demographic and labour force trends were in evidence in the 1980s, contemporary trends entail different policy settings with an emphasis on encouraging the following:
- self-support of both parents through participation in the labour force; and
- shared care of children, both financial and physical, where natural parents are separated or divorced.