Children in One-Parent Families: Survival as an Indicator of the Role of the Parents

Abstract

This study tries to shed light on the way in which family characteristics affected the survival of children in nineteenth-century European societies. Insights from recent epidemiological studies were used to construct a framework via which the absence or loss of one of the parents could affect the health and survival of children. The review not only showed how important family structure was for survival of children, it also provided insight in the differences in the roles played by fathers and mothers and indicated that the wider kinship network is a factor that is of great relevance in studying the effects of family structure on living conditions of children. Current research focuses on the relationship between religion, health, and mortality in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries; social-class and gender differences in mortality; and the current social and demographic situation of the Jews in the Netherlands.