Families & relationships

Report into the social impacts and economic costs of the death of a child

Parents are losing up to $600,000 in lost income and take, on average, sixteen weeks of unpaid leave following the death of their child, according to a new report.

The report, Beyond the Death of a Child, identifies the social impacts and economic costs to families and the community during the first three years following the death of a child.

This study conducted both quantitative and qualitative research on the topic of the social impacts and economic costs of the death of a child on the family during the first three years following the death. Two major research instruments were used: an extensive questionnaire to 103 bereaved families and 17 in-depth interviews with members of seven families.

• Two-thirds of the bereaved families lived in metropolitan Melbourne and one-third in regional Victoria. The majority of parents whose children had died were in mid-life and mid-career. The major causes of death were vehicular accidents, other accidents, suicide, SIDS, still-birth or miscarriage, cancer and other chronic illnesses.

• Almost 46% of the respondents indicated that members of their family had incurred out-of-pocket medical, hospital and other health-related expenses which they believed were directly linked to the death of their child.

• Of these, over 70% experienced moderate to extreme difficulty in meeting such expenses.

• The more significant out-of-pocket medical and health-related expenses were in the area of mental health and psychological health and more general medical expenses provided by general practitioners and specialists.

• Nearly 80% of families incurred out-of-pocket funeral and burial expenses and almost half of these experienced considerable difficulty in meeting such expenses.

Summary [viewed 10/8/2007].

Source: Media release, 04 August 2007, Report Into The Social Impact And Economic Costs Following The Death
Of A Child, The Compassionate Friends of Victoria Inc.

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Family and relationships data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

Part One of the AIHW report Young Australians: Their health and wellbeing 2007 contains statistical information on the family structure and living arrangements of young Australians. It also contains information on cohabitation, marriage and divorce among young Australians, including:

• Number and proportion of young people in Australia by family structure, 2003
• Median age at first marriage, 1970–2005
• Age-specific rate of first marriage, 1976–2005

Source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2007, Young Australians: Their health and wellbeing 2007, AIHW, Canberra [viewed 13/06/07].

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Comparison and competition among adolescent and young adult siblings (2007)

A study of 480 same-sex pairs of adolescent (12–16 years) and young adult (18–25 years) siblings indicates that factors such as birth order, relationship quality and psychological adjustment influence the ways in which individuals react in response to comparison and competition with a sibling.

Siblings were asked to provide self-reports of instances of comparison and competition with their sibling and with a friend. These reports were analysed in terms of the closeness of the relationship described (sibling or friend), the nature of the subject's performance (better or worse than their sibling/friend) and the perceived relevance of the activity described to the subject's self-concept. Separate findings were investigated for adolescent non-twin siblings, adolescent twins, young adult non-twin siblings and young adult twins (half of the sibling pairs studied were twins).

Selected findings from the study:

• adolescent siblings tended to react more positively when outperformed by a sibling than when outperformed by a friend;
• younger siblings (including twin siblings) generally coped better with being outperformed by their older siblings than vice-versa;
• identical (monozygotic) twins tended to have more positive reactions to sibling competition and comparison than fraternal (dizygotic) twins;
• siblings tended to downplay their success in activities of low self-relevance and high sibling relevance, but downplayed the significance of their failure in activities of high self-relevance;
• the self-esteem of (adolescent and young adult) siblings in relationships characterised by warmth and low levels of conflict was less likely to be negatively affected by competition and comparison.

The study was conducted by researchers from the University of Queensland's School of Psychology.

Source:

Sydney Morning Herald 'Essential' supplement, 1/02/07, p.10.

Noller, P., Blakekey-Smith, A. & Conway, S. 2007, 'Comparison and competition in sibling and twin relationships: A Self Evaluation Maintenance perspective', draft of paper presented to the 10th Sydney Symposium of Social Psychology, 13–15 March, [viewed 26/03/07].

Spending time together: An important consideration for families with adolescents (2006)

A Families Australia survey of attitudes on family wellbeing, parenting and young people conducted in May 2006 has found that the majority of young people surveyed (38%) ranked time as the most important thing that they would like from their parents or carers. The young people surveyed indicated that 'being listened to and understood' was an important component of this 'time'.

The survey, conducted in the ACT by researchers at the University of Canberra, involved face-to-face interviews with 381 people, 18% of whom were aged 12–18 years.

While survey results indicated that substance abuse, finances, getting a good education and finding a job were issues of concern for the young people surveyed, nearly three-quarters (73%) of young respondents said that they were either 'positive' or 'very positive' about the future.

Respondents who were parents reported that the three biggest challenges faced by children as they grew up were developing their own personality (29%), developing friendships (22%) and finding purpose in life (16%). 41% of parents ranked 'spending more time' as the most important thing they would have spent more time doing if they'd had their time again as parents.

General findings from the survey:

• 68% of all respondents believed that the balance between work and family life had worsened in the past five years. Just 17% of respondents said that family relationships had improved in that time.
• 69% of all respondents believed that people have less time to spend with their family and friends than they did five years ago.
• 23% of all respondents ranked getting a good job as the biggest challenge faced by young people today; 21% believed getting a good education to be the biggest challenge, a further 21% believed that health was the biggest challenge and 12% believed that the biggest challenge was having enough money.
• 42% of all respondents ranked time spent together as the factor that would most improve family life; 28% believed that enhanced family relationships were the most important factor and 5% believed that having more money was the most important factor.

Families Australia: http://www.familiesaustralia.org.au

Sources:
Herald Sun, 19/5/06, p.37.
Families Australia 2006, Survey shows pressures on families and relationships on the rise, media release 16 May 2006.

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Average weekly cost of children and young people to families, 2005.

A report by the Welfare Rights Centre, Sydney for the National Welfare Rights Network, March 2005, finds that:

This increased cost represents a far higher proportion of family income being spent on children as they get older –

Source: 'A dog's breakfast – income support for families and young people', by the Welfare Rights Centre, Sydney for the National Welfare Rights Network.

'Australia's Welfare 2005'

Highlights

• Number of young people living in Australia at June 2004:
• • young people aged 15–24: 2.8 million.
  • children aged 0–14: about 4 million
• The proportion of children in the population has been gradually declining as the population ages, but the number of children has been increasing slowly over the last decade. The number of children in 2026 is projected to be about 3.9 million, much the same as in 2004.
• Trends in family formation and dissolution mean that children today are growing up in a wider variety of family types than 30 years ago. Even so, 7 out of 10 children lived in intact families with their natural parents in 2003. About 2 in 10 children live in a lone parent family and around 1 in 10 step or blended families.
• The number of dependent and independent young people (aged 18 years and over) living in the family home has grown substantially (greater increase in two-parent families).
• Between 1992 and 2003, there was a 46% increase in the number of dependent students aged 15 to 24 living at home. Similar trends can be seen among non-dependent young people, with an increase of around 50% over the 10-year period.
• Proportion of young people who complete Year 12: About 8 out of 10 (half of these go on to higher education.)
• In 2003, there were more than 22,500 full-time grandparent families caring for more than 31,100 children aged 17 years or under.
• The proportion of two-parent families where both parents were employed increased from 51% to 59% in the decade to 2003, making this the most common employment arrangement for two-parent families.
• Families where both parents are unemployed made up a small and declining proportion of two-parent families (6% in 2003, down from 11% in 1993). However, about 200,000 children aged 0–14 years lived in these families.
• Current trends in the participation of the labour force of both two-parent and single-parent families suggest an expanding need for child care services, particularly as children get older.
• Between 1991 and 2004, the number of Australian Government-supported child care places increased from 168,276 to 537,759. The largest growth was in places for outside school hour care, which increased from 44,449 to 229,603, or five times higher than in 1991.
• Child care: In 2002, about half of children aged under 12 years (or 1.5 million children) used some type of child care, including pre-school. There has been a gradual shift from informal to formal child care over the last 10 years. The proportion using formal care increased from 19% in 1993 to 25% in 2002.
• Recent data show a steady decline in the affordability of child care services in four out of five family types analysed.
• Between June 2000 and June 2003, there was a 15% increase in the number of children on care and protection orders across Australia: from 19,262 to 22,130.
• In the four years to June 2004, the number of children in out-of-home care increased from 16,923 to 21,795 – an increase of 29%.
• A high rate of family homelessness has meant a significant proportion of Australia's homeless population are now children. In 2003–04, 52,500 children aged 0–17 years accompanied a parent or guardian who sought assistance through the Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) – nearly 11 children per 1,000 in the Australian population.

'Australia's Welfare' is the most comprehensive and authoritative source of national information on welfare services in Australia. Australia's Welfare 2005: Australia's Welfare No. 7, features an extended chapter on children, youth and families.

View full publication on line for free: http://www.aihw.gov.au/publications/index.cfm/title/10186

Source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, media release: Australia's Welfare 2005 highlights [viewed 6/12/2006].

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Snapshots of Australian Families with Adolescents (2001, 2004)

– AIFS publication

To mark National Families Week 2006 (14–20 May), the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) compiled a fact sheet on families with adolescent children aged 12 –18 years. Data for the Snapshots of Australian Families with Adolescents fact sheet were taken from a number of Australian Bureau of Statistics publications, the 2001 Census and Wave 4 of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey 2004.

General family data:

• In 2001, there were 1.1 million families in Australia with children aged 12–18 years (76% two-parent families, 24% sole parent families).
• Mothers parented in 83% of sole parent families.
• 68% of mothers and 85% of fathers were employed.
• Both parents were employed in 66% of two-parent families.
• 57% of sole parents were employed.
• 40% of families with adolescents also had children less than 12 years.
• 60% of these families lived in metropolitan areas of Australia.
• In 14% of these families, one parent was born in Australia and the other born overseas, while both parents were born overseas in 26% of these families.

Family relationships:
A 2004 survey of adolescents aged 15–18 years and parents with adolescents aged 12–18 years found that:

• 70% of male adolescents and 62% of female adolescents reported being 'very satisfied' with their relationships with their parents.
• 45% of male adolescents and 24% of female adolescents reported 'high satisfaction' with their relationships with step-parents.
• 74% of mothers and 73% of fathers reported 'high satisfaction' with their own relationships with their children.
• 59% of mothers and 78% of fathers reported 'high satisfaction' with their partner's relationships with their children.
• 45% of mothers and 59% of fathers expressed 'high satisfaction' with their relationships with step-children.
• 73% of mothers and 65% of fathers reported being 'very satisfied' with their relationship with each other.
• 63% of mothers and 59% of fathers reported being 'very satisfied' with the relationships between the children in their household.

Parents and adolescents: Percentage indicating high satisfaction with various family relationships*

* 'High satisfaction' refers to ratings 8-10 on a scale ranging from 0 'Completely dissatisfied' to 10 'Completely satisfied'.

The snapshot concludes that 'most adolescents appear to get on well with their families, with parents and their adolescent children deriving much satisfaction from their relationships with each other.'

Australian Institute of Family Studies: http://www.aifs.gov.au

Sources:
Australian Institute of Family Studies 2006, Snapshots of Australian Families with Adolescents, Australian Institute of Family Studies, Melbourne [viewed 6/12/2006].
The Australian, 18/5/06, p.7.

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Rates of marriage, 2002

Youth marriage rates per 1,000 males or females, as at 30 June 2002, by state:

Bridegrooms
Age	ACT	NT	NSW	Qld	SA	Tas	Vic	WA	Aust
15–19	0.4	0.4	1.0	1.1	0.5	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.8
20–24	14.9	10.7	23.0	23.8	19.8	10.7	17.6	18.1	20.8
Brides
15–19	2.4	2.6	5.2	3.8	3.0	3.1	3.2	3.1	3.9
20–24	24.4	19.4	38.6	38.2	36.0	42.8	29.8	33.5	35.2

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics 2003, Marriages and divorces, Australia, cat. no. 3310.0, ABS, Canberra [viewed 6/12/2006] ABS's Marriages and divorces web page.

Families and relationships

2001 and earlier

Topics

Living arrangements of Australians in their 20s: Comparison between 1976 and 2001
Indigenous family arrangements, 2001
Children and divorce, 2000
Age at first marriage
De facto relationships, 2001
Leaving (or staying at) home, 1979, 1990, 2000
Domestic violence, 2001
Marriage, 1981–2000
Carers, 1998
Australian family types, 2001

Living arrangements of Australians in their 20s: Comparison between 1976 and 2001

Australian Bureau of Statistics article, Australian Social Trends, Population, People in their 20s: then and now, compares Australians in their 20s over the 25-year period between 1976 and 2001.
From the article:
'Since the late 1970s there has been an increasing delay in the ages at which young people reach a range of milestones in the life cycle. This delay is very evident when comparing the living arrangements of people in their 20s in 2001 with those in the same age group 25 years earlier.'

Persons aged 20–29 years: Selected living arrangements(a)

	1976	2001
	%	%
Living with parent(s) (b)	20.7	29.9
Partner in a couple family without children	20.8	20.7
Partner in a couple family with children	39.6	16.2
Lone parent	1.7	4.0
Group household member	1.4	12.4
Lone person	7.9	7.6

(a) Data on living arrangements is not strictly comparable from 1976 to 2001 due to a change in the definition of child.
(b) and not living with partner and/or child of their own.
Source: ABS 1976 and 2001 Censuses of Population and Housing.

Source, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian Social Trends Population, People in their 20s: then and now
[viewed 6/12/2006].

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Children and divorce, 2000

Proportion of divorces in 2000 involving children under 18: 53%
… in 1980: 61%

Number of children involved in divorces in 2000: 49,600
… in 1980: 46,800

Source: Australian Institute of Family Studies 2001, Family Matters, No. 60, Spring/Summer 2001, p.16, [viewed 6/12/2006] Trends and Statistics.

Indigenous family arrangements, 2001

Number of Indigenous households recorded in the 2001 Census: 145,000

Percentage containing one family: 78%

Percentage that were multi-family households: 5%

Percentage that were group households: 5%

Percentage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in lone person households. 13%

Percentage of Indigenous households comprising couples with dependent children: 31%
… one-parent families: 24%

Compared with 10% of non-Indigenous familiesAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are more likely to live in one or multi-family households than non-Indigenous people (82% compared with 70%) and less likely to live in lone person households (13% compared with 24%).

An Indigenous household is defined by the ABS as being one in which an Indigenous person was resident and present on census night. These can be further classified as family, group or lone person households.

Source: Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission 2003, A statistical overview of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia [viewed 6/12/2006].

Age at first marriage

Until recently, bachelors typically married at 25–29 years (Figure 1a, below). First-time marriage rates for men aged 20–24 rose significantly between 1940 and 1970 but fell dramatically 30 years later. By 2000, men were just as likely to marry for the first time when aged 30–34 as when aged 25–29 (71.0 and 70.7 per 1,000 unmarried men respectively). The most common age for women to marry was 20–24 years in 1970, and 25–29 years for the earlier and more recent periods represented in Figure 1b.

Marrying before the age of 25 is now fairly uncommon for both men and women. And the timing of marriage is considerably more diverse in recent times than in early periods, as reflected in the "flatter" distributions for 2000 compared with those for other years (see below).

Figure 1a

Figure 1b

Source: Australian Institute of Family Studies 2001, Family Matters, No. 60, Spring/Summer 2001, p.16, viewed [6/12/2006] Trends and Statistics web page, under the 'Families' heading.

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De facto relationships, 2001

People in de facto relationships, by age, in 2001:

Marital status of people in de facto relationships, by age:


Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics 2003, Marriages and divorces, Australia, cat. no. 3310.0, ABS, Canberra [viewed 6/12/2006] ABS's Year Book Australia – Population – Marriages web page.

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Leaving (or staying at) home (1979, 1990, 2000)

Percentage of young people living with their parents, by age:

Age 15–19			Age 20–24
	Men %	Women%	Men%	Women%
1979	88.7	80.2	45.5	24.8
1990	91.6	85.6	55.9	37.4
2000	91.0	84.8	52.0	39.0

Percentage of young people aged 20–24 who have never left home, who were living at home, or who had left and returned at least once, at the time of survey:

		Men %	Women %
Living at home	1981	54.8	37.7
	1988	64.3	53.5
Never left home	1981	35.2	24.2
	1998	35.1	35.9
Left home and returned at least once	1981	52.2	44.3
	1998	66.7	56.9

Source: Australian Institute of Family Studies 2001, Family Matters, No. 60, Spring/Summer 2001, p.14 [viewed 6/12/2006] AIFS's Trends and Statistics web page.

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Domestic violence, 2001

A national survey of 5,000 young people aged 12–20 years was conducted by the Crime Research Centre at the University of Western Australia and Donovan Research in 1999 to investigate their attitudes to, and experience of, relationship violence.

Percentage who reported at least one act of physical violence against their mother or stepmother: 23.4%

Percentage who reported witnessing at least one act of physical violence against their father or stepfather: 22.1%

Almost all young people considered domestic violence either 'very serious' (72%) or 'quite serious' (20%). It was second in seriousness only to rape/sexual assault and ahead of racial violence.

Young people who did not live with both parents were more likely to be aware of domestic violence occurring in their household. Living with their mother and her partner exposed young people to the greatest risk of experiencing domestic violence.

A quarter of young people in lower socio-economic households were aware of violence towards their mothers or fathers, about 1.5 times that experienced in upper socio-economic households.

Indigenous young people were almost twice as likely to have experienced male to female domestic violence (42%). Their experience of female to male domestic violence was also significantly higher (33%).

Living with a parent who gets drunk 'a lot' was a high risk factor for experiencing parental domestic abuse. Rates of violence by the drunken parent were similar regardless of which parent had the alcohol problem (55%). However, the rate of female to male violence when the drunken partner was male, was lower than in the reverse situation when it was the female who was drunk (49.6% and 56.4% respectively).

15% of young people aged 12–20 reported that they had themselves been victims of domestic violence. There was no significant difference between females and males.

Among those who had had a relationship, just over a third of young men and women had experienced physical dating violence in one or more relationships (36% for females and 37% for males).

The nature of the violence experienced tended to differ, with males more likely to have tried physically to control females, push them around or try to force them into having sex. Young women were more likely to slap, kick or hit males.

Source: Crime Research Centre University of Western Australia and Donovan Research 2001, Young people and domestic violence: National research on young people's attitude and experiences of domestic violence, quoted in Susan Pitman, et al. 2004, Profile of young Australians: Facts, figures and issues, Foundation for Young Australians, Melbourne, pp.30–1, [viewed 6/12/2006].

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Marriage, 1981–2000

In 1981, the peak age for brides was 20–24. By 1996 it had shifted to 25–29 years, where it has remained. For grooms, the peak age was 20–24 in 1981, 25–29 by 1991 and 30–35 by 2000.

Relatively few young men remarry under 25 but young women 20–24 years had the second highest remarriage rate in 2000.

A third of all brides and grooms who remarry have children under 16 years from previous marriages/relationships.

In 2000, over half the couples under 25 who married had lived together first.

In 2001, 1970 young adults under 25 years were divorced. They made up 0.4% of all people who divorced that year.

Source: Susan Pitman, et al. 2004, Profile of young Australians: Facts, figures and issues, Foundation for Young Australians, Melbourne, pp.30–1 [viewed 6/12/2006].

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Carers, 1998

In 1998, 388,800 young people and children under 26 were identified as having caring responsibilities beyond the normal family ones. This represented approximately 6% of all carers in Australia and 10% of all 15–25-year-olds. The number was likely to have been significantly under-estimated because of the Australian Bureau of Statistics methodology and the number of hidden or unidentified carers in the community.

Within the broad group of young carers 18,800, or 4.8%, were classified as being primary carers.

Just over two-thirds of primary carers (68.7%) were aged between 18 and 25 years.

Young carers aged 15–17 made up 16% and those under 15, 15.4%.

Over half of the young primary carers were caring for a parent, most often their mother.

One-third were caring for a mentally, physically or intellectually ill child or partner.

Around a quarter were caring for someone with a mental illness (probably an understated figure).

56.9% spent under 20 hours a week caring, while 12.4% spent 40 or more hours a week in the role. The proportion of young carers who worked 40 hours or more each week increased with the number of years spent caring.

Young primary carers were at significant risk of not making a successful transition into the workforce. Only 4% of young primary carers aged 15 –25 were enrolled in education compared to 23% of the general population of this age. 60% of this young carer group are unemployed compared to 38% for the whole population.

Source: Susan Pitman, et al. 2004, Profile of young Australians: Facts, figures and issues, Foundation for Young Australians, Melbourne, pp.30-1 [viewed 6/12/2006].

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Australian family types, 2001

	Number of families	%
Couple with dependent children	1,904,122	38.60
Couple with non-dependent children	41,7043	8.40
Couple only	1,764,167	35.70
One parent family with dependent children	529,969	10.70
One parent family with non-dependent children	232,663	4.70
Other families	88,864	1.80
Total	4,936,828	100.00

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics 2002, Census of population and housing: Selected social and housing characteristics, Australia 2001, cat.no. 2015.0, ABS, Canberra.