Events

This conference aims to bring together scholars, practitioners, and policy makers to examine the trend and prevalence of one-parent family in Asia as well as consequences of such family structure for the well-being of children.

One-parent families have been on the rise in Asia due to trends such as an increase in divorce rate, parental migration, and children born to never married women. Previous research on the United States and Western Europe has shown that growing up in a one-parent family can have various short-term or long-term consequences for children’s health, cognitive development, and psychological well-being, such as low self-esteem, behavior problems, and lower school engagement and performance. Potential mediating mechanisms include a reduction in economic resources, lower emotional support from parents, lack of parental monitoring, or increased family conflicts. Studies also suggest that the extent to which one-parent family structure affects children’s outcomes depends on contexts such as state family and welfare policies, family network, and the timing, duration, and sequence of family structure changes.

From both a policy and a theoretical perspective, it is critical to examine how the children growing up in such family type fare in Asia given a growing number of Asian children spending a portion of their childhood with one parent absent. Does the absence of a parent lead children to fare less favorably than those in two-parent families? Do different causes of one-parent family (e.g., divorce vs. labor migration of a parent) yield different outcomes for children and parents?

Findings about the effects of one-parent family structure in Western countries may not be generalizable to Asian contexts for reasons including, though not limited to, those highlighted below. First, most Asian countries have weak welfare systems that provide only limited public support to lone parents and their children. Secondly, as extended families are more prevalent in Asia, family members may intervene to affect the social and economic impact of living with a lone parent. Thirdly, strong gender inequality in labor market in some Asian countries like India, Japan and Korea may put lone mothers and their children particularly vulnerable to poverty and economic insecurity. Fourthly, strong cultural sanctions against ‘deviant’ family behaviors can add additional difficulty for lone parents and their children in Asia. Fifthly, compared to the Western countries where divorced single parents constitute the majority of lone parents, a large proportion of one-parent families in Asia have an absent parent, (and in many cases, the mother) due to labor migration. Thus, the impact of one-parent family structure on children’s well-being in Asia may differ from those found in the Western societies.

Countries in Asia share some cultural and family values but also have substantial differences in demographic profiles, economic resources, religious practices, and institutional arrangements that affect who become lone parents and the consequences of such type of family. Comparative and systematic approaches are needed to better understand the commonality and variation in this relatively new family form in Asia, their consequences for children, and related policy implications. This conference seeks to fill a gap in knowledge about the trends, causes, and consequences of one-parent families in Asia and their policy implications. The conference also aims to generate evidence for international comparison to research on western societies.

Convenors

Prof Wei-Jun Jean YEUNG
Asia Research Institute, and Department of Sociology,
National University of Singapore
E| ariywj@nus.edu.sg

Assoc Prof Hyunjoon PARK
University of Pennsylvania, USA
E| hypark@sas.upenn.edu

Secretariats

Mr Jonathan LEE
Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
E| jonathan.lee@nus.edu.sg

Ms TRUONG Ngoc Linh
Arts and Social Sciences Dean’s Office,
National University of Singapore
E| fastnl@nus.edu.sg