Changes in the Life Course
6 (2014) Changing families and sustainable societies: Policy contexts and diversity over the life course and across generations State-of-the-art report Changes in the life course Ariane Pailhé, Dimitri Mortelmans, Teresa Castro, Clara Cortina Trilla, Marie Digoix, Patrick Festy, Sandra Krapf, Michaela Kreyenfeld, Vicky Lyssens-Danneboom, Teresa Martín-García, Wilfried Rault, Olivier Thévenon, Laurent Toulemon © Copyright is held by the authors. A project funded by European Union's Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement no. 320116 Changes in the life course Ariane Pailhé1, Dimitri Mortelmans2, Teresa Castro3, Clara Cortina Trilla3, Marie Digoix1, Patrick Festy1, Sandra Krapf4, Michaela Kreyenfeld4, Vicky Lyssens-Danneboom2, Teresa Martín-García3, Wilfried Rault1, Olivier Thévenon1, Laurent Toulemon1 Abstract: The dynamics of family formation and disruption have changed in contemporary societies. Compared to previous decades, more people cohabit, have children outside marital unions, experience the dissolution of their unions, re-partner, enter stepfamilies, live separately from their children or remain childless. Family life courses have become increasingly diverse as the sequence of events and the pace at which they occur have become less standardized than before. Moreover, new types of households such as single parent families, Living-Apart- Together relationships and same sex couples are emerging. This report contains a comprehensive literature overview of state-of-the-art knowledge about the dynamics of the development of family constellations and non-standard families. It discusses how current research can be further developed to improve our understanding of determinants of changes in family structure. It underlines that future research needs to consider the family as a dynamic entity.
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