WELLINGTON, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- About 47 percent of New Zealand kids are living with both of their biological parents at age 15, and a proportion of those kids haven't always had care arrangement, a study published on Monday found.
The survey of 600 15-year-old children of participants in New Zealand offered a view of what modern Kiwi teens' family homes look like.
About 94 percent of the kids have moved house at least once, and over half have moved more than five times, according to a study done by the University of Otago in Dunedin.
Children born to younger mothers are less likely to live in a two-parent house for 180 months and more likely to have a non-resident father, the study shows.
The authors led by Helena McAnally say that this data shows that many young New Zealanders' living arrangements are "complex and changeable", and conventional ideas about family structure should be re-examined.
"This degree of complexity and change is poorly recognized by the policies, practice, and research aimed at supporting young people," said the research paper published in "Kotuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online."
In New Zealand, there has also been a general change in family structure over time, with people having children later, repartnering, and having children outside of marriage being more common than was the case in the 1970s, the study shows.
The widespread changes to family structure in recent decades mean that it is important for researchers and policy makers to continue to reflect on and understand what constitutes "family" and how the family pattern changes over time, the study says. Enditem
