Life Cycle Stages for Types of Single Parent Families: Of Family Development Theory

A theoretical rationale based on the family development orientation is presented for constructing the family life stages for modal two parent nuclear families. Using these stages as a point of departure lifespan careers by stages are constructed for several empirically distinct types of single parent families. These careers are based on data for birth cohorts of women comparing intact first marriage histories with the family histories of divorced (not married), widowed and remarried women. The paths of the later three types depart in distinctive ways from the central highway of modal two parent families in timing and duration of family stages over the lifespan.