(1) Core family still is the main family type, but its number has waned in recent years. Core families accounted for 63.34% of Taiwan families, a decrease of 3.87% compared with 1998. Stem families accounted for only 18.47%, an increase of 1.10% compared with 1998. The survey indicates that core families were in decline.
(2) Fingle mothers was 3 times as many as single fathers. The number of families consisting of a single parent and unmarried children accounted for 6.34% of all families, a decrease of 1.39% over 1998. The survey indicates that the number of single mothers was three times of single fathers. Single-father families were mainly a result of children born out of wedlock and divorce while single-mother families were mainly due to the death of a spouse.
2. Relatives
(1) Adults living with the parents were mainly males. Adults living with the parents accounted for 38.42% of the adult population, a 3.15% increase over 1998. 52.44% of these adults were males, far higher than the 24.52% for females.
(2) Adults had fewer children compared with four years ago. Better educated adults tended to have fewer children. Each adult had an average of 2.81 children, similar to 2.83 of 1998. The survey also indicates that the older the parent became, the more children they had; the age group 20-29 had 1.23 children whereas those 60 and older had 4. Those who were better educated had fewer children. Adults with a primary school education background or less had an average of 3.55 children whereas those of college education background and above had only 1.81.
(3) The average age at which adults moved out of their parents’ homes decreased The average age at which adults leave their parents’ home was 24.92 for males and 21.60 for females, a decrease of 0.6% over 1998. Males left home mostly due to employment or marriage, whereas females moved out mostly due to marriage.
3. Marriage condition
(1) Economic issue has become the major obstacle preventing adults from getting married. In 2002, 56.49% of males adults were unmarried while 43.51% of females unmarried. The main reason they remained unmarried was that they did not have a solid financial base (34.86%). On the other hand, the main reason for not getting married was people could not find ideal spouse in 1999, indicating economic issue has become the major obstacle preventing adults from getting married.
(2) Husbands were older than their wives in 80% of couples and the age difference was mostly less than three years. For all adult couples living together, 80.51% of husbands were older than their wives. Couples whose husbands and wives were of the same age accounted for 10.47% and couples whose wives were older than husbands accounted for 9.02% couples. There is little difference between the data of 2002 and that of 1998. For the age difference, the survey indicates that husband older than their wives by 1-3 (38.03%) or 4-6 (25.26%) years were most common.
(3)More than 50% of all married couples were equally educated, significantly higher than before. The majority of all adult married couples living together were equally educated (51.34%), followed by husbands were better educated (35.99%) and wives were better educated (12.68%). Compared with 1998, the number of married couples with husband and wife equally educated rose by 8.9%. The number of couples with better educated husbands and better educated wives fall by 6.84% and 2.05%, respectively, compared with 1998.
(4) Divorce and separation mostly occurred while raising children. Children and economic pressure were the biggest factors. 3.43% of those adult population was either divorced or separated with many of them in the 35-49 age group and 6.18% were widows many of whom were 65 and older. 44.20% those divorced and the separated had children younger than 18, significantly higher than of the widowed (6.10%). The survey shows that most couples divorced or separated while raising children and were under greater economic burdens than widows, whose children were mostly adults.
4. Parent-children relationships
(1) Pre-school children’s health was parents’ main concern. Most parents indicated that they were most concerned about the “health condition” of their children age 6 and younger (56.17%), followed by their children’s “personality development” (21.96%) and “learning progress” (12.25%). The ranking of the three concerns is the same as in 1998.
(2) The biggest difficulty of parents toward their preschool children was “having insufficient time to look after them.” The biggest difficulty parents had concerned their preschool children less than 6 years old was “having insufficient time to look after them” (25.97%), followed by “heavy economic burden” (25.39%) and “physical and mental burden” (21.20%). “Having insufficient time to look after them” decreased slightly by 2.5% from 1998; “physical and mental burden” was up 10.78% from 1998, overtaking “heavy economic burden” as the second difficulty. The biggest difficult “having insufficient time to look after them” fell by a slight 2.5% and the second difficulty “heavy economic burden” rose by 10.78%, up from the third place to the second place.
(3) “Chatting” was the main way of communication between parents and their children age 6-12. “Chatting” was the main way of communication between parents and their children age 6-12 (54.07%), followed by “watching TV with children” (43.54%) and “helping with their homework.” These three ways of communication between parent and children were also found in 1998 survey, but “watching TV with children” has fallen to the third place.
(4) Nearly 30% parents knew little about their teenage children’s social contacts. “Health condition” was what parents knew most about their children age 12-18, followed by “studying or working condition” and “social contacts.” However, the percentage of parents who understood their children’s social contacts has increased by 6 % since 1998.
(5) Children’s “studying attitude” was the issue that most often sparked disputes between parents and children age 12-18. Children’s studying attitude was the issue that most often sparked disputes between parents and children age 12-18, followed by “daily schedule” and “money spending.” The factors sparking disputes between parents and children ranked similarly as those in 1998, but their percentages decreased slightly.
Directorate General of Budget Accounting and Statistics, Executive Yuan, R.O.C
