The Family Context of cohabitation and single motherhood in Latin America

The dramatic shift from marriage to cohabitation during the last four decades in most Latin American countries begs the question as to the living arrangements of cohabiting couples and single mothers. The new “Family Interrelationship Variables” in the IPUMS samples of Latin American censuses facilitated the construction of an enlarged LIPRO typology. LIPRO classifies individuals with respect to the type of household in which they are living. The results indicate that cohabiting women and single mothers of ages 25 to 29 are frequently found in parental households or in other extended or composite households. However there are large variations according to country and education. For instance, cohabitation is mainly in nuclear households, as in Europe, in Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Brazil, and Argentina. It is mainly in extended households in Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela and Cuba. Mexico and Chile occupy intermediate positions. In all instances coresidence of cohabiting couples with other kin drops significantly upon the transition to parenthood, and then there are no differences between cohabiting and married couples anymore. Single mothers, however, continue to coreside in extended or composite households, and this holds particularly for the better educated among them. This analysis illustrates that cohabitation of the traditional type and of the “Second Demographic Transition” type are found alongside each other, with one being more important than the other depending on country and education or social class within each