Changes in families and the situation of children in Brazil: is there a connection between a mother’s marital status and her child’s well-being?

In 2006, among Brazilian women aged 15-49 who had given birth to a live child during their lives, 69.3% had got married before having their first child, 15.8% had got married at the same age as giving birth to their first child, 10.8% had got married after having their first child and 4.1% were mothers who had never been married. If being a single mother in the past was an experience marked by stigma and moral condemnation, acceptance in today’s society is much higher across practically all social classes. This greater acceptance seems to be mainly linked to the gains made in women’s economic independence, but also reflects a change in values which disassociate sex from marriage and marriage from reproduction. The objective of this paper is to investigate if it is possible to perceive any inequality between children according to their mother’s marital status. Three dimensions have been considered: 1) if the children are registered citizens through the emission of a birth certificate; 2) if the children attend school in a grade appropriate to their age; 3) if there is any kind of disadvantage in terms of access to basic sanitation, which would indicate social vulnerability.