Quebec had been marked since the 1960s by an upward trend in parental separation. New data suggests that not only has the trend plateaued, but it may even be reversing.
This is revealed in a recent publication by the Ministry of the Family of Quebec. Among parents who had their first child between 1990 and 2009, 21% were separated five years after birth. This separation rate fell to 13% among parents who had a first child in the 2010s.
“Since the beginning of the 21st century, however, the trend seems to be stabilizing or even slowing down,” note the authors of the bulletin Quelle famille?.
However, these findings must be qualified, as they come from 2017 data. The effect of the pandemic was therefore not taken into account. They are however very interesting and will be significant if they are confirmed, believes Marie-Christine Saint-Jacques, full professor at the University of Montreal and director of the research partnership Parental separation, family recomposition.
These figures actually show that the rate of parents who separate three or five years after a first child was similar in the 2010s to that of the 1980s.
The Ministry of Family notes “that it is too early to speak of a reversal of the trend”. The Ministry recalls that the pandemic was not taken into account. However, it has induced episodes of acute stress, overload in the parents or marital and family conflicts.
Conversely, studies “have reported that a significant portion of parents reported an increase in quality time spent with family” during the pandemic, notes a spokesperson for the Ministry, Esther Chouinard.
“Further analyzes will therefore need to be carried out over the next few years to highlight the possible repercussions of the health crisis on the dynamics of parental separations,” she writes.
The fact remains that parental separation of course exploded during the 20th century in Quebec. Among Generation Y – born between 1976 and 1988 – 21% of parents separated before the fifth birthday of their child. This rate was 2% among the generation of parents born between 1937 and 1945.
The What Family? further notes that common-law parents separate more than those who are married. Among married parents born between 1966 and 1988, 27% were separated by the 15th birthday of their first child, compared to 58% for those in a common-law union.
Another observation: the more educated parents from Generations X and Y separated less than the others, a correlation that was reversed in the older generations, where the less educated separated less.
