Canada's Changing Families: Implications for Individuals and Society

Elaine G. Porter is an associate professor of sociology at Laurentian
University.

Detailed, technically sophisticated multivariate analyses form the basis
of this book. The data come from the General Social Surveys—up to and
including the 2001 GSS—and the National Longitudinal Survey of
Children and Youth. Two chapters describe trends, one in fertility and
the other in life transition delays. The first section of the book
discusses changes in families related to childbearing, work patterns,
and life course transitions. Angst over individual and societal
consequences of fertility declines underlies most of the analyses in
this section; even work timing effects on families can be interpreted as
influences on fertility decision-making. The analyses in Part 2 are
directed at understanding the effects of family type on children’s
emotional health and the propensity of adolescents to enter into and
leave heterosexual unions. Chapter 9 in Part 2 is written with the
assumption that single mothers’ work participation is helpful for
children, but the success of Alberta’s coercive approach raises a host
of questions for further research. All chapters include useful
literature reviews that provide frameworks for grouping variables and
discuss the nature of the data analysis techniques used.

The final section is only loosely connected to the previous two.
Whereas previous sections considered policy effects, the two chapters in
this section examine solidarity and social integration in relation to
what individuals in families give to each other and to society.

Family variables were shown to have net effects on both providing
social support to family members and volunteering behaviour as one form
of integration. Immigrant status was found to hinder both family
solidarity and social integration but these effects are not explained by
the data nor, surprisingly, are they traced back to the immigration
policies promoted as an alternative to increased fertility.

What to conclude from these detailed analyses? McQuillan’s final
chapter weighs in on the side of family structure as the key to
children’s well-being, but perhaps too heavily. For one, his advocacy
of policies to discourage childbearing among women with unstable
relationships could end up intensifying the low-fertility trends he
deplores.