Policies to encourage strong marriages and stable families
The family in Canada has undergone a dramatic transformation in the last 35 years, with major consequences for society. In the early 1960s over 90 per cent of children were born to parents who were married for the first time and who had not cohabited - with anyone - prior to marriage. Most of these children could expect to survive their teen years with both their mom and dad in the home. How times have changed! These days, fewer than 40 per cent of children can expect to be born to married parents who have not cohabited before marriage.1 And since 1981, the number of children between the ages of zero and 14 who live with common-law parents has more than quadrupled!2 What has happened in the span of one generation?
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