澳洲独生子女家庭数量呈上升趋势

一炷香

根据2006年澳洲人口普查的数据，虽然几乎一半的男女受访者说他们希望能有两个孩子，但是独生子女家庭数量却在连年上升。

13%的40-44岁妇女仅有一个孩子，18-34岁的妇女虽表示愿意生养一个以上的孩子，但是现实往往同愿望背道而驰。16%的人下定了决心当丁克族。

家庭学专家解释说，造成独生子女家庭数量增多的实际原因包括，比较常见的包括人们选择晚育，但是这时生育更多孩子的机会却小很多；婚姻关系的破裂和无法找到理想的伴侣也是造成这一现象的原因之一。

一些关于独生子女家庭的数据：

- 从1991-2006年间，澳洲年过50岁但只有一个孩子的比例从8%跃升到了13%。预计到2021年，这一比例将上升到15%。
- 亚裔移民较澳洲本地人更倾向于选择独生子女。
- 独生子女相对更有可能就读公立的非教会学校和入读大学。
- 1911-2001的将近一个世纪中，澳洲平均家庭人口数量从4.5下降到2.6。预计到2026年，将继续下滑到2.2-2.3左右。



One and only: singled out for the special treatment

http://www.theage.com.au/national/one-and-only-singled-out-for-the-special-treatment-20090509-ayov.html?page=-1
Carmel Egan
May 10, 2009

Once, mums were surrounded by a brood of children on Mother's Day. Increasingly, it's just the one, writes Carmel Egan.

IN FRANCE, children like Zoe Hopper have always been one-off specials — les enfants uniques. In the English tradition though, her uniqueness would have made Zoe a target for rhyming derision, a lonely only with accompanying tut-tuts about spoiling and indulgence.

"I suppose it all sounds very selfish, but we decided to have children when we were older," says Zoe's mother, Karen Terry. "We are keen on our careers and we felt we would be complete with just one child."

In the 1960s and '70s, when double-fronted brick veneers teemed with children watched over by stay-at-home mums, the single child was an oddity.

By the 1980s that was changing and at the turn of the century the growing phenomenon of single-child families was demanding demographers' attention.

Now downsized families are the norm and the single-child unit is increasingly popular.

Mark Hopper's 1960s childhood was dominated by life within his boisterous, bustling family. But having grown up with 10 siblings, Mr Hopper is father of just one, 13-year-old Zoe.

"I would be lying if I said being one of 11 didn't play a part," says Mr Hopper of the decision he and Ms Terry took to limit their family. "It is interesting that in my family, with my 10 siblings, there are only 13 grandchildren and some with no offspring at all."

In 2006, 13 per cent of Australian women aged between 40 and 44 had just one child, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and that percentage is rising.

While the majority of young women aged 28 to 34 would prefer to have more than one child, they are increasingly likely to be disappointed. And 16 per cent will never have children.

"Only 6 per cent of women surveyed said they wanted just one child," said Institute of Family Studies researcher Lexia Qu — herself a mother of one — who specialises in family compositions.

"Nearly half the men and women surveyed said they would prefer to have two, but the one-child family is increasing."

The reasons many will not achieve their preferred family model are various.

"Most commonly it is that you put off having children until you are older so the opportunities to have more decrease," she said. "It could be that they didn't find a partner or relationship breakdown. It takes time to repartner and it is more difficult if you have children and then your new partner might already have children.

"It could also relate to the parenting experience. Some say it is very hard."

Like Mark Hopper, Leanne Poynton grew up in a crowded 1960s household. She decided at the age of seven, as she watched her mother slave over five demanding sons, that she would "rather be a bloke, would never marry and would not have children".

It didn't quite work out that way but Ms Pynton's resolve not to relive her mother's travails influenced her decision to limit her family to just one child. Son Zachary is now 17.

One in three households surveyed in the 2006 census with one dependent child were single-parent homes.

"It was planned that Zach would be an only child," Ms Poynton says. She believed she would be better able to cope with and provide for Zach "financially, physically and emotionally" if he were an only child.

Aware of the possibility that Zoe and Zach would need the company of other children the Hopper-Terry and Poynton households have both emphasised the importance of friends.

Psychotherapist and counsellor Ann Richardson believes single children often look for surrogate siblings in their friends.

Ms Richardson, herself an only child, started the London-based BeingAnOnly website after sitting for 10 minutes with a group of people who had grown up without siblings.

"You never grow out of being an only child," she said. "You're still an only child when you're 70 and it is often later in life, when people are caring for an elderly parent or parents or, when they find themselves orphaned finally, that they reflect on their only childlessness.

"Being alone again comes full circle."

Falling birthrates have helped increase interest in the experiences of one-child families and to break down prejudices, she said.

"There are definite advantages to being one child and there are disadvantages, too," Ms Richardson said.

"The old stereotype of spoilt and selfish does no one justice."

THE POWER OF ONE

-The single-child family is the fastest growing family unit in the developed world.

-Countries with a high proportion of one-child families (other than China, which has a one-child policy) include Austria, Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, Spain and the European countries formed from the former Soviet Union.

-The percentage of Australian women who by their 50th birthday had just one child increased from 8 per cent to 13 per cent between 1991 and 2006. The percentage is projected to rise to 15 per cent by 2021.

-Those born in east Asia are more likely to stop at one child than people born in Australia.

-One-child mothers are more likely to have attended non-government, non-Catholic schools and to have attained a bachelor degree.

-Women not married at the time of the first birth are more likely to stop at one.

-Women born between 1962 and 1966 are twice as likely to have stopped at one child than their mothers.

-Between 1911 and 2001 the average number of people per household in Australia declined from 4.5 to 2.6.

-The average household size is projected to fall from 2.6 people in 2001 to between 2.2 and 2.3 people by 2026.

SOURCE: ABS; NiCK PARR, MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY; JOURNAL OF POPULATION RESEARCH

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