Differences in Economic Conditions of Single-Parent Families : Focused on the Differences between Single-Mother and Single-Father Families and their Household Composition

The purpose of this study is to understand how the economic conditions and needs of single-parent families are different between single-mother and single-father families, and also how they are dependent on household composition. The data for this study were drawn from the 1st Korea Welfare Panel Study and analyzed by frequencies, means, , t-test, F-test, and logistic regression with the STATA 9.1 program. The major findings are as follows: (1) Single-parent families are more likely to live in a three-generation household than married couple families. (2) The composition of a three-generation household of single-parent families is affected by sex, age, education, type of marital disruption, the type of employment of single parents and the age of the last-born child. (3) The income-to-needs ratio is not significantly different depending on the sex of the single parents and their household composition. However, material hardship is significantly low in three-generation household single-parent families. (4) There are differences between three-generation single-parent families and independent single-parent families in income sources: The ratio of public transfer to total incomes is higher in three-generation households than independent households, while the ratio of private transfer to total incomes is higher in independent households.