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Heuveline P and Hong S

prevalent (Kandel and Kao, 2001; Kuhn, 2006; Yao and Treiman, 2011; Nobles, 2011; Townsend, Madhavan, Tollman et
al., 2002). These different pathways into single-parent-headed households may produce different effects on the children
in these households. A recent article argues for negative selection among children with a deceased parent, but positive
selection for the children left behind by their migrant parents in India (Das, 2016). For Southeast Asia, Pong (2006)
reports that in Malaysia’s collectivist culture divorce and separation have a negative effect on children’s education, but
widowhood does not. In Indonesia and Thailand, Park (2007) finds students in single-parent families to outperform their
peers in intact families. Strong norms against never-married or divorced parents imply that a higher proportion of single
parents are widows who may receive more social and institutional support than single parents elsewhere. In Vietnam,
however, Loenzien (2016) reports lower enrollment and attainment levels for children of lone mothers, regardless of
whether they are never married, divorced, separated or widowed.
Prior research in the U.S.A. has shown that children living with a single mother may benefit from the additional
presence of grand-parents (e.g., DeLeire and Kalil, 2002). Huisman and Smits (2009) obtain similar results in their
comparative study of low- and middle-income countries. Reduced when one of the biological parents is absent, a child’s
enrollment chances appear to increase when living in an extended family, especially one with grandparents. For Thailand,
Mahaarcha and Kittisuksathit, (2009) also showed the positive effect of having grandparents, in the household, on school
enrollment for adolescents. These results are consistent with the additional resources grand-parents contribute, both
economic and social (i.e., Coleman’s (1988) inter-generational closure). In Japan, however, Shirahase and Raymo (2014)
found children of single mothers to fare worse in multi-generational than in single-parent households. The authors tie
these results to strong norms favoring nuclear households, since such norms imply highly-negative selection into multi-
generational households.

1.2 The Cambodian Context
1.2.1 Household Structure and Children’s Living Arrangements

There is a strong norm against pre-marital childbearing in Cambodia. Anecdotally, data collectors on a fertility study in
the late 1990s were found to skip fertility histories for never-married women for fear of offending study participants. In
Phnom Penh at least—as in Bangkok (Esara, 2012), Manila (Xenos and Kabamalan, 2007) and probably other capital
cities in Southeast Asia—pre-marital cohabitation is beginning to appear and may result in pre-marital conceptions and
even births. Lacking national data on mothers’ marital status at birth, however, it is impossible to know whether the
phenomenon is limited to the capital city or even to its few highly “globalized” neighborhoods, where Westerners and
Cambodian youths interact (Hoefinger, 2013).
Trends in divorce are easier to track in survey data. Marriage stability among recent cohorts is markedly lower than
among earlier ones, divorce remains rare. Among the late 1990s cohorts, only 6% had ended in divorce within 5 years
of marriage (Heuveline and Poch, 2006). Even though adult mortality has declined from the dramatically high levels of
the late 1970s, parental death likely remains the most common reason for a child not to live with both biological parents.
Heuveline and Hong (2016) report that parental mortality actually accounts for nearly half of children (46.2%) residing
with only one of their biological parents.
Another increasingly common reason for parental absence appears to be work-related parental mobility. The majority
of Cambodian households remains engaged in farming, and rice farming in particular. Towards the end of the dry season
when the demands of agricultural work slow down considerably, farmers have commonly sought temporary work in
the cities—men in construction, for instance, and women in street-food vending. With the relative decline of farming
revenues relative to other sectors, such temporary migration has only become more frequent or more permanent (National
Committee for Population and Development, 2009). In particular, the rapid development of a garment industry (Chea and
Sok, 2001; Ear, 2011) has fueled the migration of young female workers to the outskirts of the capital city (Derks, 2008).
At the outset, garment factories were recruiting almost exclusively never-married women intending to save up some
money before marriage. Over time, however, with wages substantially higher than the income that farming may generate,
it has become more common for women to return to the factories after marriage.
A widely recognized normative sequence of living arrangements begins with newlyweds residing with the brides’
parents, but only temporarily until they build up the desired resources to eventually settle their own independent
household nearby (Ebihara, 1968; Heuveline and Hong, 2016). Correspondingly, the dominant living arrangement is
nuclear, with a preference for uxorilocality. However, Cambodian households can be quite pragmatic in their living
arrangements and young couples routinely depart from the uxorilocal norm, for instance, if economic opportunities are
available near the groom’s parents (Demont and Heuveline, 2008). The prevalence of multigenerational households (in
which, as will be shown below, nearly a quarter of all rural children under 18 years of age live), however, clearly exceeds
what it would be were married couples to live in this arrangement only for a few years after marriage. Another indication

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