Trajectories of Poverty and Single Parenthood: Quebec in a Comparative Perspective
Quebec has realized remarkable progress in its fight against poverty, among families, but especially among single parent families. Over the last ten years the province’s poverty rates have generally been lower than those in the rest of Canada. The aim of this article is to explore whether Quebec’s cross-sectional successes have translated into longitudinal successes. A longitudinal perspective helps us to better understand how poverty effects Quebec families over the life course. We find that lone-parent families in the other major Canadian provinces were more likely than those in Quebec to experience bouts of poverty between 2002 and 2007. However, once families entered into poverty, the time needed to climb back out of poverty was roughly the same.