Single Parenthood in the Lives of Québec Children: A common but often transitory reality

The purpose of this article is to gain a better understanding of the role of single parenthood in the lives of young Québec children, based on detailed data on the conjugal history of parents collected as part of the Québec Longitudinal Study of Child Development (QLSCD). These data make it possible to determine the proportion of children who have been in a single-parent household, what led to it, and the age at which they experienced it.

This analysis covers the first episode of single-parenthood experienced in the first eight years of the lives of children born in Québec in the late 1990s.