Popular in Sociology

Social Identities and Divisions

A new explanation of antisemitism: Jew hatred as a civilisational phenomenon

Boston University Liah Greenfeld

Culture and Society

The City as a Growth Machine: Toward a Political Economy of Place

New York University Harvey Moltoch

Culture and Society

Carceral Entrapments: Views from the Prison/Street Interface in India

Indian Institute of Technology Delhi Mahuya Bandyopadhya

Culture and Society

Pre-problem families: predictive analytics and the future as the present

University of Southampton Rosalind Edwards

Ethnicity and Racism

Were Muslim Barbarians Really Knocking On the Gates of Ontario?

University of Ottawa Natasha Bakht

Culture and Society

Poor People’s Survival Strategies

The University of Texas at Austin Javier Auyero

Ethnicity and Racism

Sociology of Whiteness

Arizona State University Monica McDermott

Are Rural Areas Holdouts in the Second Demographic Transition?

View more insights in Social Sciences - Sociology - Culture and Society

View more figures from McGill University

View the page of Shelley Clark

Read the Study

Next in Culture and Society

Planning for the Wrong Pandemic

Andrew Lakoff | University of Southern California

Goodbye Religion

Jesse Smith, Ryan Cragun | University of Tampa, Western Michigan University

A central premise of the first demographic transition theory is that demographic change would occur more slowly in rural than urban areas. Shelley Clark examines trends among rural and urban families in Canada and the United States discussing current differences between rural and urban families.

Image courtesy of interviewee. May 30, 2024

Log-in or Sign-up to Faculti
Currently viewing this subject insight as a guest. You have insight(s) remaining for this month. Login to view 8000+ figures on the platform.

Generating Workspace...

Export as PDF

The work discussed focuses on the evolving dynamics of rural families over the past three decades, highlighting a significant lack of understanding in this area as compared to urban families. It examines demographic transitions, particularly the decline in fertility and marriage rates, and contrasts the experiences of rural versus urban families.

Historically, rural families were thought to lag behind urban families in adopting modern family structures, characterized by a higher inclination toward marriage and having children within marriage. However, recent trends indicate a notable shift in rural areas, where there has been a significant retreat from marriage and an increase in cohabitation and non-marital childbearing. This video change is more pronounced in rural than in urban settings, contradicting prior assumptions about traditional family values in rural contexts.

Research reveals that women in rural areas are now more likely to cohabit and have children outside of marriage. While rural women still exhibit higher fertility rates, the gap between rural and urban fertility is narrowing. In Canada, rural women tend to have a notably higher number of children compared to their urban counterparts, unlike in the U.S., where the difference is smaller.

The drivers of these trends differ by country. In Canada, lower ethnic diversity and fewer immigrants in rural areas contribute to different family formation patterns, whereas in the U.S., factors such as poverty and lower educational attainment among women play a significant role in the rise of cohabitation and non-marital births.

The findings suggest that rural families are not in crisis; rather, they are experiencing a transformation that reflects broader societal shifts. The data challenges prevailing narratives about rural families and highlights the need for tailored policies to address the unique challenges and dynamics of rural family life, particularly in light of recent economic hardships. The research calls for a deeper understanding of rural family structures and the development of more context-specific policy interventions.

Language:

Export as PDF

X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

00:00.195 --> 00:03.405
This really, this work focuses obviously on rural families

00:03.425 --> 00:05.645
and looking at changes over the last three decades.

00:06.425 --> 00:07.485
And that's mainly

00:07.485 --> 00:09.285
because, you know,

00:09.445 --> 00:12.165
I realized we really don't know much about rural families

00:12.345 --> 00:13.525
and what has happened.

00:13.705 --> 00:15.765
Um, and that was a bit surprising

00:15.765 --> 00:18.885
because as demographers, we used to care a lot about rural

00:19.445 --> 00:22.205
families and differences between rural and urban families.

00:22.665 --> 00:26.685
The work really traces initially back to, the original,

00:26.825 --> 00:29.205
demographic transition theory,

00:29.295 --> 00:31.245
which has now become called the first

00:31.245 --> 00:32.805
Demographic Transition theory.

00:32.945 --> 00:34.525
And this refers

00:34.525 --> 00:37.085
to the really precipitous decline in fertility

00:37.225 --> 00:40.725
and mortality rates that occurred pretty much across western

00:41.325 --> 00:44.565
countries in the sort of mid to late 18 hundreds.

00:45.185 --> 00:47.525
And demographers have long been interested in kind

00:47.525 --> 00:49.605
of understanding, you know, what drove this decline.

00:49.665 --> 00:52.605
In particular, why was this decline in fertility

00:52.615 --> 00:54.805
where women used to have more than 10 kids

00:54.945 --> 00:57.885
and then they started having, you know, five and four

00:57.905 --> 00:59.205
and three and two, and,

00:59.345 --> 01:01.445
and they wanted to know what was causing this.

01:01.505 --> 01:04.565
And one of the most common explanations that's been given,

01:05.145 --> 01:08.245
is that it was due to basically industrialization

01:08.345 --> 01:10.445
and in particular the rise of the quote,

01:10.445 --> 01:12.405
urban industrial Society.

01:12.465 --> 01:16.685
And the idea was that, with industrialization,

01:16.835 --> 01:18.845
more people moved to urban areas.

01:19.385 --> 01:21.565
And we used to have a lot of rural families

01:21.575 --> 01:24.885
where they were primarily based on agricultural production.

01:25.065 --> 01:26.925
And so getting married early

01:27.105 --> 01:30.165
and having lots of kids was really beneficial to do.

01:30.515 --> 01:34.245
Whereas once we had urban families, well,

01:34.245 --> 01:36.725
in those cases they were mainly wage employees.

01:36.755 --> 01:38.805
They were mainly based in factory work,

01:38.865 --> 01:41.405
and so just individual labor mattered

01:41.405 --> 01:44.205
and having lots of kids actually might be quite expensive,

01:44.265 --> 01:46.285
so maybe you didn't wanna have so many kids.

01:46.425 --> 01:47.885
And so early work

01:47.885 --> 01:50.485
by demographers about this first demographic transition

01:50.485 --> 01:54.645
really focused on, really focused on these urban

01:54.705 --> 01:58.325
and rural contrasts in family life and, and children.

01:59.225 --> 02:01.565
But then now demographers are interested in

02:01.635 --> 02:04.565
what we call sometimes the second demographic transition,

02:05.095 --> 02:06.925
which we first did a series of changes

02:06.975 --> 02:09.045
where we don't just have low fertility,

02:09.045 --> 02:11.645
we have very low fertility, we're now

02:11.775 --> 02:13.285
below replacement levels.

02:13.385 --> 02:15.285
So we're below two children,

02:15.285 --> 02:17.485
really 2.1 children, per woman.

02:17.985 --> 02:19.885
Uh, in the United States, for example,

02:20.055 --> 02:22.205
we're at 1.8 children per woman.

02:22.665 --> 02:26.725
Uh, in Canada we're at 1.3, which is a record low

02:26.725 --> 02:28.805
and obviously well below replacement levels.

02:29.465 --> 02:30.925
And then there are other changes

02:30.995 --> 02:33.165
that are occurring in Western countries

02:33.255 --> 02:34.445
pertaining to the family.

02:35.065 --> 02:38.485
Uh, in particular there's this, retreat from marriage.

02:38.745 --> 02:41.525
So increasingly, adults

02:41.545 --> 02:43.485
and young adults are choosing, yeah, you know,

02:43.725 --> 02:44.925
I think I'm gonna wait to get married,

02:44.945 --> 02:46.365
or maybe I'm not gonna marry at all.

02:46.545 --> 02:48.645
Or maybe instead of getting married,

02:48.705 --> 02:51.885
I'm gonna form a cohabiting partnership with, with someone.

02:52.545 --> 02:56.245
And then the third major change in families now is

02:56.245 --> 02:58.605
that there's become this disconnect

02:58.605 --> 02:59.805
Between marriages.

03:00.705 --> 03:02.285
So whereas by

03:02.305 --> 03:05.085
and large having children who's really confined to

03:05.605 --> 03:08.445
a married couple, we're now seeing a growing proportion

03:08.445 --> 03:09.765
of kids that are being born

03:09.765 --> 03:11.365
and raised, either by single parents

03:11.505 --> 03:14.525
or in these, cohabiting families.

03:14.665 --> 03:18.645
And so, so those are the three major changes going on.

03:18.905 --> 03:21.605
And in the prior research, we see a lot of studies

03:21.755 --> 03:24.485
that look at and show that, you know,

03:24.485 --> 03:28.365
but there's differences in who's making those changes by,

03:28.625 --> 03:30.765
particularly by women's education.

03:31.345 --> 03:34.005
Um, we also see big differences by income level.

03:34.105 --> 03:36.845
We see differences across race, we see differences

03:36.905 --> 03:38.005
by immigrant status.

03:38.625 --> 03:40.485
But what people hadn't looked at was,

03:40.545 --> 03:43.205
are we also seeing rural and urban differences here?

03:44.045 --> 03:46.805
I think mainly the reason they hadn't looked at that is

03:46.925 --> 03:48.725
'cause the assumption was, well, you know,

03:48.725 --> 03:51.045
in the first demographic transition, rural areas kind

03:51.045 --> 03:52.765
of trailed behind urban areas.

03:53.185 --> 03:56.205
And, you know, eventually fertility fell a little,

03:56.305 --> 03:58.325
but not as much and changes happened,

03:58.385 --> 04:00.365
but they, they sort of lagged behind.

04:00.665 --> 04:03.805
And there's this kind of lingering idea that

04:03.805 --> 04:06.285
that's still going on in rural areas.

04:06.475 --> 04:08.565
There's this view that, you know,

04:08.565 --> 04:10.965
rural families are more traditional,

04:11.135 --> 04:15.325
rural adults hold more traditional values about wanting

04:15.385 --> 04:17.405
to get married, wanting to have kids.

04:17.985 --> 04:20.845
You see this portrayed a lot actually in like media accounts

04:20.845 --> 04:23.925
or even recent popular literature about rural families.

04:24.545 --> 04:27.205
Um, but we don't really know whether or not it's true.

04:27.505 --> 04:30.805
And so this, this work that I looked at was trying

04:30.805 --> 04:33.925
to sort of assess, you know, what has really happened

04:33.925 --> 04:37.125
to rural, families, especially in the last,

04:37.305 --> 04:39.845
the last few decades prior to

04:39.865 --> 04:43.925
or right around, 2000, the early two thousands,

04:44.265 --> 04:46.285
you know, probably the media accounts in the,

04:46.285 --> 04:47.405
and the general assumptions

04:47.405 --> 04:49.685
that demographers were making were, were fairly accurate.

04:49.695 --> 04:51.965
Rural families were, quote, more traditional,

04:51.995 --> 04:54.405
they were more likely to marry, they had more kids,

04:54.715 --> 04:57.005
they're more likely to have the kids within marriage.

04:57.665 --> 05:00.245
Uh, so, you know, it was, it seemed

05:00.245 --> 05:02.965
to pretty much fall in line with expectations.

05:03.185 --> 05:07.525
But the last like 20, 25 years have been pretty rough in

05:07.525 --> 05:10.325
rural areas, especially in the us we saw a lot

05:10.325 --> 05:12.125
of economic decline due to

05:12.925 --> 05:15.325
economic restructuring due to globalization.

05:16.105 --> 05:18.445
Um, also the, the great recession

05:18.445 --> 05:21.765
of 2008 really hit rural areas a lot harder.

05:21.985 --> 05:25.205
And so, you know, in many ways this kind

05:25.205 --> 05:28.645
of undermined a lot of rural economies and economies and,

05:28.645 --> 05:30.045
and social networks that used

05:30.045 --> 05:32.885
to be really robust really started to weaken.

05:33.505 --> 05:35.765
And we know from prior studies that, you know,

05:35.795 --> 05:39.325
disadvantaged groups, say women with less education

05:39.345 --> 05:41.845
or lower incomes, those are actually the women

05:41.845 --> 05:43.965
that are most likely to cohabit

05:44.025 --> 05:46.085
or to have children outside of marriage.

05:46.185 --> 05:48.925
And so for me, I was like, well, let's actually look

05:48.945 --> 05:49.965
and see what happens.

05:50.425 --> 05:54.045
And in fact, what I did show, I, along with my colleagues

05:54.105 --> 05:57.685
who worked with me on this research, what we showed is

05:57.685 --> 05:59.805
that, we did see a,

06:00.045 --> 06:02.925
a stronger retreat from marriage in rural areas

06:02.995 --> 06:04.125
than in urban areas.

06:04.425 --> 06:06.765
So this was kind of offset by this sort

06:06.765 --> 06:10.005
of growing cohabitation where you see women deciding

06:10.025 --> 06:12.005
to cohabit rather than get married.

06:12.545 --> 06:15.245
Um, they also, rural women also started having more

06:15.525 --> 06:17.925
and more of their children outside of marriage.

06:18.105 --> 06:21.605
Um, and while similar trends were happening in urban areas,

06:21.795 --> 06:24.125
they weren't as, as strong or as steep.

06:24.185 --> 06:28.125
And so, you know, today, basically what we find is

06:28.125 --> 06:30.165
that in rural areas in both Canada

06:30.345 --> 06:31.485
and in the United States,

06:31.855 --> 06:33.605
rural women are actually more likely

06:33.625 --> 06:35.445
to be in cohabiting unions

06:35.465 --> 06:36.565
and they're more likely to have

06:36.685 --> 06:37.805
children outside of marriage.

06:37.985 --> 06:41.165
Um, which we think of as being sort of tradition markers of,

06:41.305 --> 06:42.925
being untraditional

06:43.385 --> 06:47.005
or sort of modern family formations, which are,

06:47.185 --> 06:49.205
are now more common in rural areas.

06:49.985 --> 06:53.725
The one place you would say rural families have stayed more,

06:53.905 --> 06:55.165
traditional

06:55.185 --> 06:56.725
or sort of as expected is

06:56.725 --> 07:00.005
that we do still see higher fertility rates in rural areas,

07:00.505 --> 07:02.805
but these differences are really quite small.

07:02.985 --> 07:04.365
In the United States,

07:04.365 --> 07:07.285
rural women only only have slightly more children,

07:07.345 --> 07:10.445
in rural US than, in urban us.

07:10.785 --> 07:14.165
Uh, but in Canada, these differences have sustained

07:14.225 --> 07:15.645
and they've maintained themselves

07:15.665 --> 07:18.045
as being quite large, rural women.

07:18.105 --> 07:22.485
In Canada, about 50% have about 50% more children,

07:22.595 --> 07:23.765
than do urban women.

07:23.825 --> 07:27.925
And so, we really don't understand sort of what is,

07:28.405 --> 07:30.365
allowing them to sustain these relatively

07:30.365 --> 07:31.485
high fertility rates.

07:32.185 --> 07:34.685
Um, while at the same time a growing proportion

07:34.685 --> 07:36.605
of those kids are now being born

07:36.605 --> 07:38.565
and raised, outside of marriage.

07:38.905 --> 07:41.125
But we did wanna look into both why, you know,

07:41.145 --> 07:42.565
why is cohabitation on the rise

07:42.705 --> 07:47.325
and why also is, is, are more children being born

07:47.325 --> 07:48.685
outside of marriage,

07:48.825 --> 07:50.925
in the rural areas in both the US and Canada.

07:51.225 --> 07:54.045
And we get actually quite different answers as

07:54.045 --> 07:55.845
to what's driving these trends in Canada

07:56.025 --> 07:58.445
and in the us in Canada.

07:58.585 --> 08:00.605
And I think this is actually quite interesting.

08:01.065 --> 08:03.365
It actually doesn't have anything to do with,

08:03.685 --> 08:05.885
economic differences or education differences

08:05.985 --> 08:08.245
or even differences in religiosity.

08:08.835 --> 08:12.645
What it actually has to do with is that in rural areas,

08:12.675 --> 08:14.645
they tend to have less ethnic diversity.

08:14.835 --> 08:16.965
They also, especially in in Canada,

08:17.035 --> 08:18.765
they have far fewer immigrants

08:18.765 --> 08:20.725
who live in rural areas than urban areas.

08:21.425 --> 08:22.805
And in Canada, most

08:22.805 --> 08:26.045
of the immigrants come from Asian countries.

08:26.425 --> 08:29.165
And in Asian countries it's actually quite uncommon either

08:29.185 --> 08:31.725
to cohabit or to have children outside of marriage.

08:32.185 --> 08:35.205
And so what's actually driving these differences in Canada

08:35.505 --> 08:39.445
is the fact that you have more immigrants in urban areas

08:39.665 --> 08:40.725
who are not cohabiting

08:40.725 --> 08:42.005
and not having children outside

08:42.005 --> 08:44.485
of marriage than you do in rural areas.

08:44.675 --> 08:47.805
Whereas in the US you, you find a very different story.

08:48.025 --> 08:50.445
You do actually see that what seems

08:50.445 --> 08:53.525
to be driving these trends is the higher, levels

08:53.585 --> 08:57.005
of poverty, you know, lower levels of income

08:57.145 --> 08:59.685
and particularly lower levels of women's education

09:00.155 --> 09:03.245
that are associated with, being more likely

09:03.265 --> 09:04.765
to have children outside of marriage

09:04.945 --> 09:08.045
and, forming cohabiting, unions.

09:08.065 --> 09:11.685
So you get very different explanations in the two countries

09:11.795 --> 09:13.205
despite similar trends.

09:13.785 --> 09:18.125
In terms of main conclusions, I think people, some people,

09:18.225 --> 09:21.005
and there have been sort, sort of popular literatures

09:21.065 --> 09:24.805
around sort of, you know, our rural families in crisis

09:25.105 --> 09:28.045
and the rise of sort of overall resentment and anger

09:28.185 --> 09:29.685
and rage in rural areas.

09:30.465 --> 09:32.765
And I actually think these findings have

09:32.765 --> 09:34.165
something to say about this.

09:34.305 --> 09:37.405
You know, in Canada I think it's pretty clear rural families

09:37.405 --> 09:40.045
aren't in crisis, but in the US there's more reason

09:40.105 --> 09:41.565
to be a little bit concerned.

09:42.105 --> 09:46.365
Um, it does sort of seem that, that much of the reason

09:46.545 --> 09:50.325
for this rise is probably not due for out of preferences

09:50.505 --> 09:52.525
or out of changing ideals or norms.

09:52.625 --> 09:55.645
And in fact, qualitative research on,

09:55.875 --> 09:59.485
with young adults in, rural parts of the US suggests

09:59.485 --> 10:01.925
that they still really want to get married.

10:01.955 --> 10:03.605
They still really think it's important

10:03.605 --> 10:05.365
that you are married when you have children.

10:06.025 --> 10:09.005
But the fact that there's now this disconnect between

10:09.165 --> 10:11.205
what their ideals are about families

10:11.205 --> 10:12.685
and what they're able to obtain,

10:13.485 --> 10:15.445
I think could actually be an important source

10:15.745 --> 10:19.965
of frustration, in many of these rural communities.

10:20.225 --> 10:23.005
Uh, and it also points out, I think, to the fact that,

10:23.725 --> 10:25.285
I mean, obviously you, you hear,

10:25.465 --> 10:26.765
so we're gonna strengthen the family

10:26.865 --> 10:29.605
and a lot of sort of, you know, politicians

10:29.625 --> 10:31.565
and policy makers, that's always one of their,

10:31.655 --> 10:32.765
their objectives.

10:33.145 --> 10:36.205
But that a lot of the policies really designed to strengthen

10:36.225 --> 10:40.045
and assist families, need to be taking into account

10:40.105 --> 10:41.725
how different contexts matter more.

10:41.725 --> 10:42.725
And they're, you know, these sort

10:42.725 --> 10:45.805
of blanket policies probably aren't gonna be equally helpful

10:46.065 --> 10:47.525
across different contexts.

10:47.625 --> 10:50.205
So if you think of something like,

10:50.645 --> 10:53.525
subsidizing childcare, making childcare more accessible,

10:53.525 --> 10:54.805
this seems like a great idea,

10:54.905 --> 10:56.605
but it is far easier to do

10:56.605 --> 10:58.725
that in an urban area than in a rural area.

10:58.945 --> 11:01.365
And so there might be different policies

11:01.465 --> 11:04.045
and applications that are necessary,

11:04.065 --> 11:06.365
for rural families than for urban families.

11:06.625 --> 11:09.805
And it's clear that a lot of the sort

11:09.805 --> 11:12.085
of lingering economic impacts in,

11:12.085 --> 11:16.405
rural areas have had a really, hard consequence

11:16.425 --> 11:18.565
for a lot of these, these families.

11:18.665 --> 11:21.245
And I think it helps us, encourage us to do more research

11:21.265 --> 11:25.045
to understand what we could do to better meet the needs

11:25.045 --> 11:26.325
of rural families,

11:26.425 --> 11:29.205
and to maybe develop policies that are better suited

11:29.225 --> 11:29.565
for them.

"Examining Changes in Rural Family Dynamics Over Three Decades"

00:00:00 - This really, this work focuses obviously on rural families and looking at changes over the last three decades. And that's mainly because, you know, I realized we really don't know much about rural families and what has happened. and that was a bit surprising because as demographers, we used to care a lot about rural families and differences between rural and urban families. The work really traces initially back to, the original, demographic transition theory, which has now become called the first Demographic Transition theory. And this refers to the really precipitous decline in fertility and mortality rates that occurred pretty much across western
00:00:45 - And demographers have long been interested in kind of understanding, you know, what drove this decline. In particular, why was this decline in fertility where women used to have more than 10 kids and then they started having, you know, five and four and three and two, and, and they wanted to know what was causing this. And one of the most common explanations that's been given, is that it was due to basically industrialization and in particular the rise of the quote, urban industrial Society. And the idea was that, with industrialization, more people moved to urban areas. And we used to have a lot of rural families
00:01:25 - And so getting married early and having lots of kids was really beneficial to do. Whereas once we had urban families, well, in those cases they were mainly wage employees. They were mainly based in factory work, and so just individual labor mattered and having lots of kids actually might be quite expensive, so maybe you didn't wanna have so many kids. And so early work by demographers about this first demographic transition really focused on, really focused on these urban and rural contrasts in family life and, and children. But then now demographers are interested in
00:02:05 - which we first did a series of changes where we don't just have low fertility, we have very low fertility, we're now below replacement levels. So we're below two children, really 2.1 children, per woman. in the United States, for example, we're at 1.8 children per woman. in Canada we're at 1.3, which is a record low and obviously well below replacement levels. And then there are other changes that are occurring in Western countries pertaining to the family. in particular there's this, retreat from marriage. So increasingly, adults and young adults are choosing, yeah, you know,
00:02:44 - or maybe I'm not gonna marry at all. Or maybe instead of getting married, I'm gonna form a cohabiting partnership with, with someone. And then the third major change in families now is that there's become this disconnect Between marriages. So whereas by and large having children who's really confined to a married couple, we're now seeing a growing proportion of kids that are being born and raised, either by single parents or in these, cohabiting families. And so, so those are the three major changes going on. And in the prior research, we see a lot of studies that look at and show that, you know,
00:03:28 - particularly by women's education. we also see big differences by income level. We see differences across race, we see differences by immigrant status. But what people hadn't looked at was, are we also seeing rural and urban differences here? I think mainly the reason they hadn't looked at that is 'cause the assumption was, well, you know, in the first demographic transition, rural areas kind of trailed behind urban areas. And, you know, eventually fertility fell a little, but not as much and changes happened, but they, they sort of lagged behind. And there's this kind of lingering idea that that's still going on in rural areas.

"Shifting Dynamics of Rural Family Structures: Tradition vs. Modern Trends"

00:04:08 - rural families are more traditional, rural adults hold more traditional values about wanting to get married, wanting to have kids. You see this portrayed a lot actually in like media accounts or even recent popular literature about rural families. but we don't really know whether or not it's true. And so this, this work that I looked at was trying to sort of assess, you know, what has really happened to rural, families, especially in the last, the last few decades prior to or right around, 2000, the early two thousands, you know, probably the media accounts in the, and the general assumptions
00:04:49 - Rural families were, quote, more traditional, they were more likely to marry, they had more kids, they're more likely to have the kids within marriage. so, you know, it was, it seemed to pretty much fall in line with expectations. But the last like 20, 25 years have been pretty rough in rural areas, especially in the us we saw a lot of economic decline due to economic restructuring due to globalization. also the, the great recession of 2008 really hit rural areas a lot harder. And so, you know, in many ways this kind of undermined a lot of rural economies and economies and,
00:05:30 - to be really robust really started to weaken. And we know from prior studies that, you know, disadvantaged groups, say women with less education or lower incomes, those are actually the women that are most likely to cohabit or to have children outside of marriage. And so for me, I was like, well, let's actually look and see what happens. And in fact, what I did show, I, along with my colleagues who worked with me on this research, what we showed is that, we did see a, a stronger retreat from marriage in rural areas than in urban areas. So this was kind of offset by this sort of growing cohabitation where you see women deciding
00:06:12 - they also, rural women also started having more and more of their children outside of marriage. and while similar trends were happening in urban areas, they weren't as, as strong or as steep. And so, you know, today, basically what we find is that in rural areas in both Canada and in the United States, rural women are actually more likely to be in cohabiting unions and they're more likely to have children outside of marriage. which we think of as being sort of tradition markers of, being untraditional or sort of modern family formations, which are, are now more common in rural areas. The one place you would say rural families have stayed more,
00:06:55 - or sort of as expected is that we do still see higher fertility rates in rural areas, but these differences are really quite small. In the United States, rural women only only have slightly more children, in rural US than, in urban us. but in Canada, these differences have sustained and they've maintained themselves as being quite large, rural women. In Canada, about 50% have about 50% more children, than do urban women. And so, we really don't understand sort of what is, allowing them to sustain these relatively high fertility rates. while at the same time a growing proportion
00:07:36 - and raised, outside of marriage. But we did wanna look into both why, you know, why is cohabitation on the rise and why also is, is, are more children being born outside of marriage, in the rural areas in both the US and Canada. And we get actually quite different answers as to what's driving these trends in Canada and in the us in Canada. And I think this is actually quite interesting. It actually doesn't have anything to do with, economic differences or education differences or even differences in religiosity. What it actually has to do with is that in rural areas, they tend to have less ethnic diversity.

"Examining Rural Family Dynamics: The Impact of Immigration and Economic Disparities"

00:08:17 - they have far fewer immigrants who live in rural areas than urban areas. And in Canada, most of the immigrants come from Asian countries. And in Asian countries it's actually quite uncommon either to cohabit or to have children outside of marriage. And so what's actually driving these differences in Canada is the fact that you have more immigrants in urban areas who are not cohabiting and not having children outside of marriage than you do in rural areas. Whereas in the US you, you find a very different story. You do actually see that what seems to be driving these trends is the higher, levels of poverty, you know, lower levels of income
00:09:00 - that are associated with, being more likely to have children outside of marriage and, forming cohabiting, unions. So you get very different explanations in the two countries despite similar trends. In terms of main conclusions, I think people, some people, and there have been sort, sort of popular literatures around sort of, you know, our rural families in crisis and the rise of sort of overall resentment and anger and rage in rural areas. And I actually think these findings have something to say about this. You know, in Canada I think it's pretty clear rural families
00:09:40 - to be a little bit concerned. it does sort of seem that, that much of the reason for this rise is probably not due for out of preferences or out of changing ideals or norms. And in fact, qualitative research on, with young adults in, rural parts of the US suggests that they still really want to get married. They still really think it's important that you are married when you have children. But the fact that there's now this disconnect between what their ideals are about families and what they're able to obtain, I think could actually be an important source of frustration, in many of these rural communities.
00:10:23 - I mean, obviously you, you hear, so we're gonna strengthen the family and a lot of sort of, you know, politicians and policy makers, that's always one of their, their objectives. But that a lot of the policies really designed to strengthen and assist families, need to be taking into account how different contexts matter more. And they're, you know, these sort of blanket policies probably aren't gonna be equally helpful across different contexts. So if you think of something like, subsidizing childcare, making childcare more accessible, this seems like a great idea, but it is far easier to do that in an urban area than in a rural area. And so there might be different policies
00:11:29 - for rural families than for urban families. And it's clear that a lot of the sort of lingering economic impacts in, rural areas have had a really, hard consequence for a lot of these, these families. And I think it helps us, encourage us to do more research to understand what we could do to better meet the needs of rural families, and to maybe develop policies that are better suited for them.

Faculti AI can make mistakes

Faculti

Popular in Sociology

The City as a Growth Machine: Toward a Political Economy of Place

Carceral Entrapments: Views from the Prison/Street Interface in India

Pre-problem families: predictive analytics and the future as the present

Were Muslim Barbarians Really Knocking On the Gates of Ontario?

Poor People’s Survival Strategies

Are Rural Areas Holdouts in the Second Demographic Transition?

Next in Culture and Society

Guide

Platform and Category Pages

Contact Us

FAQs

What is Faculti?

How do you select interviews?

Interview Process

Page Structure

Popular in Sociology

Guide

Platform and Category Pages

Contact Us

FAQs

What is Faculti?

How do you select interviews?

Interview Process

Accessibility Options

Contrast Adjustment

Text Size Adjustment

Text Spacing Adjustment

Line Height Adjustment

Cursor Size Adjustment

Page Structure Options

Page Structure