本篇文章利用1980-94年的「家庭收支調查」來分析臺灣女性 單親家庭的成長因素。研究發現，女性單親家庭的成長有很大的部 分是來自女性的獨立性。對離婚的母親而言，婦女教育程度的提高 及小孩數目的減少，不但提升她們的社會經濟地位，也使她們更加 獨立。這種社經地位的獨立使她們在面對婚姻危機時，更有能力去 終結婚姻。然而，對喪偶的母親而言，教育程度呈現負面影響，顯 示擁有高教育程度的丈夫有較低的死亡率。

Based on Survey of Family Income and Expenditures, 1980-94, this paper focuses on the factors that caused the increase in singlemother families in Taiwan. The findings of this paper indicate that women’s independence largely contribute to this growth. Specifically, for divorced mothers, the rapid increases of women’s education and the decrease of number of children raise their socioeconomic status and make them more independent. This independence in women’s status allows women able to terminate their marriages when they feel they must to. For widowed mothers, education shows a significantly negative effect for all cohorts and points out the different mortality probability of the husbands among classes.