Life Cycle Stages for Types of Single Parent Families: Of Family Development Theory

A theoretical rationale based on the family development orientation is presented for constructing the family life stages for modal two parent nuclear families. Using these stages as a point of departure life span careers by stages are constructed for several empirically distinct types of single parent families. These careers are based on data for birth cohorts of women (1900-1949) comparing intact first marriage histories with the family histories of divorced (not married) widowed and remarried women. The paths of the latter 3 types depart in distinctive ways from the central highway of modal two parent families in timing and duration of family stages over the life span. The differences in paths of development of single parent family types and two parent families are seen primarily not in stages encountered but in the number timing and length of the critical transitions experienced. All types of single parent families experience more and longer critical transitions between equilibrium stages (stages of stable numbers and growth of members) than two parent families. Single parents who remarry and add a child experience even more transitions and more structural disorder than single parents who do not remarry. Among single parent types who remarry widowed remarrieds are least vulnerable to divorce (less even than couples in first marriages).