Moving on: The expansion of the family network after parents separate

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Résumé (français)

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Résumé (anglais)

This is the third of three reports commissioned by the Child Support Team of the Department of Justice Canada. These reports use family history data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth[1] (NLSCY) to explore the impact of parents’ conjugal behaviour on their children’s family environment and economic well-being. The previous report focussed on the first and most common transition experienced by children: their parents’ separation. In this report, we move on, looking at the expansion of children’s family networks, as separated mothers and fathers continue their conjugal and parental life courses, entering new unions and creating new families. The report is divided into two main sections. The first section focusses on the arrival of new parents, stepsiblings and half-siblings, showing how complex and diverse the experience of family life has become for Canadian children. In the second section, we explore how children perceive their relationship with parents and parent figures, and we attempt to gain an insight into how these relationships are affected by their family life pathways.