Families in Latin America: Trends, Singularities, and Contextual Factors

Abstract

We review demographic and sociological literature on family dynamics in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and systematize major trends in union formation and fertility in recent decades. We also highlight the singularities that distinguish family patterns and trends in LAC from those in other world regions and discuss the contextual factors underlying these singularities. Latin American families have undergone substantial changes in their configurations and dynamics. We highlight the persistence of an early pattern of family formation despite considerable educational expansion and emerging subreplacement fertility levels, the bottom-up diffusion of cohabitation from low- to high-education groups, the frequent coresidence of single mothers with extended family members, and the substantial divergence in family forms and trajectories across social classes. These family trends do not conform entirely to any of the major theoretical frameworks devised to explain family change in Western societies. Pervasive socioeconomic inequality, high levels of informality in the labor market, weak social protection systems, and slow progress toward gender equality are among the contextual factors that shape the diversity and singularities of Latin American families.

The Neglected Role of Domestic Migration on Family Patterns in Latin America and the Caribbean, 1950–2000

“…Although our findings only examine the role of migration for women born between 1946 and 1964 in 10 LACar countries, the lessons learned about the role of social class inequalities on family and migration trajectories could help us understand demographic change among more recent birth cohorts in LACar. The literature suggests that the patterns documented in this work may have become more severe among women born between the 1970s and 1990s (Esteve, Castro‐Martin, and Castro Torres 2022). The structural factors undergirding differences in family trajectories by social class did not change substantially.…”

“…Partnership regimes and gender relations within couples, instead, remained relatively unchanged (Ducoff et al 1965;Dufour and Piperata 2004;Elizaga, Lee, and Arias 1965;Rodríguez Vignoli and Busso 2009). Union formation and marriage patterns developed during the colonial time and the persisting influence of the Catholic Church and newly established evangelical churches have contributed to preserving a conservative family model in most LACar countries (Esteve, Castro-Martin, and Castro Torres 2022;Lesthaeghe 2020). This model is characterized by a traditional division of work by sex, relatively early union formation, and formal and stable marriage as the normative context for childbearing.…”

Diverging reproductive outcomes by maternal education during the Covid‐19 pandemic across Brazilian and Colombian regions

“…Although we cannot test our materialist assumptions, a divergent association between the subnational severity of Covid‐19 and fertility by maternal age and years of schooling might suggest that this interpretation is plausible. Young mothers with relatively lower educational attainment are more vulnerable than highly educated adult mothers; these two groups of women are likely to live in distinct contexts in terms of household composition, family structures, and material and social resources beyond their differential age and educational attainment (Esteve et al, 2022; Juárez & Gayet, 2014). Therefore, the fertility consequences of a social and health crisis are likely to diverge along these two variables.…”

Beyond early motherhood: Trends and determinants of late fertility in Chile

“…The few recent studies addressing the timing of childbearing in Latin America provide conflicting evidence regarding trends of late fertility. While some studies indicate the persistence of early motherhood and lack of substantive changes in reproductive timing (Batyra, 2016; Bongaarts et al, 2017; Esteve et al, 2022), others indicate an incipient delay of first childbearing (Nathan et al, 2016; Rosero-Bixby et al, 2009; Yopo Díaz, 2023). Drawing on a mixed-methods study, this article aims to advance knowledge on the trends and determinants of late fertility in Latin America by analysing whether and why women are delaying first childbearing in Chile.…”

“…According to these studies, some Latin American countries, including Chile, are currently characterized by a bimodal age-specific fertility distribution and a growing polarization of reproductive timing between highly educated women, who increasingly delay childbearing and lower-educated women, who show no signs of family formation postponement (Esteve et al, 2022; Lesthaeghe, 2020). Early signs of postponement are incipient and emerge only among selected groups characterized by urban residence, high educational and occupational status, and stable unions often formalized in marriage.…”