2022
Bussemakers, C., Kraaykamp, G., & Tolsma, J. (2022). Variation in the educational
consequences of parental death and divorce. Demographic Research, 46, 581-618.
https://doi.org/10.4054/DEMRES.2022.46.20
Ample research demonstrates that experiencing parental death or divorce harms children’s
educational attainment. Less is known about variation herein, both between parental death and
divorce and across social contexts. We investigated how family and national contexts moderate the
educational consequences of these adverse events. At the family level, we studied whether the
educational consequences of parental death and divorce are larger for children of higher-educated
parents. At the national level, we investigated the buffering role of welfare benefits as well as the
amplifying impact of a selective educational system and the divorce rate. Moreover, we examined
the interplay between family and country contexts. Using multilevel regression models with data
from 17 countries from the Generations and Gender Survey, we found that parental divorce had a
larger impact than parental death. Furthermore, the impact of parental divorce was largest for
children of higher- educated parents. Less selective educational systems and provision of single-
parent benefits reduced the educational consequences of parental death, specifically for children of
lower-educated parents. Our results indicate that although both parental death and divorce harm
children’s educational attainment, their impacts differ across family and country contexts. The
consequences of divorce strongly depend on the resources available in a family, while the effects of
parental death are mitigated by educational and welfare policies.
Billingsley, S., & Oláh, L. (2022). Patterns of Co‐Residential Relationships Across Cohorts in
Post‐Socialist Countries: Less Time for Childbearing?. Social Inclusion, 10(3), 87-99.
https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v10i3.5201
Co‐residential partnerships are a pre‐condition for childbearing and less time is spent in these
unions when there is difficulty finding partners, a delay in union formation, and partnership
instability. Our study explores patterns in co‐residential partnerships across birth cohorts in 11
post‐socialist countries to assess changes in the number of years spent in these partnerships and the
patterns underlying any trend. Using the Harmonized Histories dataset, based on partnership data
from generations and gender surveys, we calculate changes in co‐residential union trends. In about
half of the countries, the share of women who have not entered a co‐residential union by age 30
increased, whereas the proportion still in their first union by this age decreased universally. The
latter trend, reflecting union instability, pre‐dates the transition from socialism. Delays in starting
the first union were seen in only a few countries immediately after the transition began but more
countries experienced union postponement in coming‐of‐age cohorts in the 2000s. A declining
median age at first union in the former Soviet republics before and immediately after the transition
from socialism balances the impact of increased union instability. Overall, the number of years
spent in a co‐residential union before age 30 declined across the Central and South‐Eastern
European countries, especially in Hungary. Union dynamics may have contributed to declining
fertility in these countries. In contrast, little or no change in time spent in unions in the post‐Soviet
countries indicates that union dynamics were less likely to have influenced these women’s fertility
behavior.
Heers, M., & Szalma, I. (2022). Gender role attitudes and father practices as predictors of
nonresident father-child contact. Plos one, 17(4), e0266801.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266801
Due to an increasing number of parental union dissolutions, a growing number of fathers does not
cohabit with their biological children. This article analyses individual and societal gender role
attitudes as well as societal father practices as determinants of nonresident father-child contact.
Previous research shows that individual-level factors influence the relationship between nonresident
fathers and their children. Research on resident fathers indicates that individual attitudes and
societal contexts affect father-child involvement. Little is known on the relationship between
individual gender role attitudes as well as societal gender role attitudes and father practices and
nonresident fathers’ involvement in their children’s lives. To shed more light thereon, we examine
data from eleven Eastern and Western European countries from the first wave of the Gender and
Generations Survey. We analyze two samples: One consisting of nonresident fathers of children
aged 0 to 13 and one of fathers of adolescents aged 14 to 17. Logistic regression models assess if
individual and societal gender role attitudes as well as societal father practices predict the
probability of monthly father-child contact. Contact between nonresident fathers is affected by
different factors depending on whether the focus is on children or adolescents. Societal gender role
attitudes and societal father practices predict the probability of monthly contact between fathers and
their children; individual gender role attitudes are less important. Individual gender role attitudes,
on the other hand, predict the probability of monthly contact between nonresident fathers and their
adolescent children; societal factors matter less for this age group.
Billingsley, S., Neyer, G., & Wesolowski, K. (2022). Social investment policies and
childbearing across 20 countries: Longitudinal and micro-level analyses. European Journal of
Population, 38(5), 951-974. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10680-022-09626-3
This study analyses the influence of family policies on women’s first and second births in 20
countries over the period 1995 to 2007. Welfare states have shifted towards social investment
policies, yet family policy–fertility research has not explicitly considered this development. We
distinguish between social investment-oriented and passive support that families may receive upon
the birth of a child and consider changes in policies over time. These indicators are merged with
fertility histories provided by harmonized individual-level data, and we use time-conditioned, fixed
effects linear probability models. We find higher social investment-oriented support to be correlated
with increased first birth probabilities, in contrast to passive family support. First birth probabilities
particularly declined with higher passive family support for women over age 30, which points to a
potential increase in childlessness. Social investment-oriented support is positively related to first
and second births particularly for lower-educated women and has no relationship to childbirth for
highly educated women, countering the Matthew-effect assumptions about social investment
policies. Passive support is negatively related to second births for post-secondary educated women
and those who are studying. Family policies that support women’s employment and labour market
attachment are positively linked to family expansion and these policies minimize educational
differences in childbearing.
2021
Härkönen, J., Brons, M. D., & Dronkers, J. (2021). Family forerunners? Parental separation
and partnership formation in 16 countries. Journal of Marriage and Family, 83(1), 119-136.
https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12682
To analyze the relationships between parental separation and partnership formation patterns across
16 countries and over time, and how the relationships are shaped by contextual factors. Several
studies have found that parental separation predicts higher rates of cohabitation and lower rates of
marriage. Few studies have analyzed these relationships over time or across countries, and none
have systematically analyzed whether they are moderated by contextual factors. Method:
Retrospective partnership histories on 138,739 women and men from the Generations and Gender
Survey and Harmonized Histories datafiles were used. Monthly data on entry into cohabitation or
marriage as the first coresidential union, and on entry into marriage were analyzed using life table
and event history techniques. The overall incidences of parental separation and of premarital
cohabitation were used as contextual-level measures in the event history analyses. The association
between parental separation and partnership formation was moderated by the spread of premarital
cohabitation. Higher incidence of cohabitation was associated with a weaker positive association
between parental separation and cohabitation, and a more negative association between parental
separation and marriage. The associations between parental separation and partnership formation
were not weaker when parental separation was more common. Conclusion: Children of divorce
have been among the forerunners of the increase in cohabitation and the retreat from marriage.
Koops, J. C., Liefbroer, A. C., & Gauthier, A. H. (2021). Having a child within a cohabiting
union in Europe and North America: What is the role of parents' socio‐economic status?.
Population, Space and Place, 27(6), e2434. https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2434
The link between parental socio-economic status (SES) and the likelihood of having a birth in
cohabitation or in marriage varies considerably across countries. Previous studies have referred to
the pattern of disadvantage perspective and the second demographic transition theory to explain this
cross-national variation. Yet no study has directly tested the explanatory power of both theories in
this context. In the current study, hypotheses are formulated about the influence of economic
inequality and norms regarding family formation on this relationship. The hypotheses are tested in
19 European and North American countries, using data of the Generations and Gender Survey and
four other datasets. The analyses show that in societies that have more traditional family formation
norms, women with lower parental SES are more likely to have a birth in cohabitation whereas such
differences are not found in less traditional societies. The influence of economic inequality is less
clear-cut.
Saar, E., & Helemäe, J. (2021). Inequality across three generations under pressure from
Sovietization policies: Forcing discontinuity between two generations to strengthen the impact
of grandparents. Comparative Sociology, 20(2), 255-282. https://doi.org/10.1163/15691330-
bja10032 Link to pdf file.
This article explores the multigenerational impact of Sovietization policies on the reproduction of
educational inequalities in Estonia. Estonia provides an opportunity to assess the multigenerational
effect under conditions of regime changes after transitioning from the independent Estonian
Republic to Soviet Estonia and thence to the newly independent post-Soviet Estonia. During
Sovietization, a wide range of measures involving repressions and positive discrimination were
applied to abruptly hinder intergenerational continuity. Analysis based on retrospective data from
the Estonian Family and Fertility Survey 2004 indicates grandparents’ social positions are
associated with grandchildren’s attainment of higher education. Their influence is only partially
mediated through the parental generation. Overall, the Sovietization policies have not reduced either
the two or three-generational reproduction of inequality. Moreover, these policies produced
unintended consequences, facilitating the transmission of advantage in three generational
perspectives. Our findings argue in favour of the importance of contextual sensitivity and a
multigenerational perspective in research of social stratification.
Thomson, E., Dahlberg, J., & Svallfors, S. (2021). Childbearing across Partnerships in Europe
and the United States. Stockholm Research Reports in Demography. Preprint.
https://doi.org/10.17045/sthlmuni.14179967
Decreasing family stability has generated increases in “multipartner fertility” or having children
with more than one partner. Most studies of the phenomenon include descriptive information, but
vary in the way the population at risk is defined and sometimes in the measurement method. This
study uses comparable data and the same measurement method to generate descriptive information
about the prevalence of childbearing across partnerships in 14 European countries and the United
States. We use birth and union histories from the Harmonized Histories, most of which are based on
Generation and Gender Surveys. We identify the union spells in which each child is born to
determine whether all of the respondent’s children are born in the same union or some are born in
different union spells, the latter defined as childbearing with more than one partner. The percentage
of parents with at least two children, who have had children with more than one partner, ranges
from just over 6 % to over 20 %, with slightly higher percentages for mothers than fathers. As
expected, percentages are higher for parents with more children. Parents are most likely to make the
transition to multi-partner parenthood at the second birth, especially if the first birth occurs outside
a coresidential union. The estimates provide a basis for cross-national analyses of change and
variability in childbearing across partnerships.
Koops, J. C., Liefbroer, A. C., & Gauthier, A. H. (2021). Socio-economic differences in the
prevalence of single motherhood in North America and Europe. European Journal of
Population, 37(4), 825-849. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10680-021-09591-3
The study focuses on understanding the association between parental socio-economic status (SES)
and the likelihood of women experiencing a first birth while single, and identifying societal factors
that influence this association in 18 North American and European societies. Previous research has
shown that single motherhood occurs disproportionately among those from with lower a lower
parental SES. The study assesses whether this is caused by parental SES differences in the risk of
single women experiencing a first conception leading to a live birth or by parental SES differences
in how likely women are to enter a union during pregnancy. Additionally, an assessment is made of
whether cross-national differences in these associations can be explained by a country’s access to
family planning, norms regarding family formation, and economic inequality. Across countries, a
negative gradient of parental SES was found on the likelihood of single women to experience a first
pregnancy. The negative gradient was stronger in countries with better access to family planning. In
some countries, the negative gradient of parental SES was aggravated during pregnancy because
women from lower parental SES were less likely to enter a union. This was mostly found in
societies with less conservative norms regarding marriage. The results suggest that certain
developments in Western societies may increase socio-economic differentials in family
demography.
Kalmijn, M., & Leopold, T. (2021). A new look at the separation surge in Europe: Contrasting
adult and child perspectives. American Sociological Review, 86(1), 1-34.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122420973982
This study contrasts adult and child perspectives on divorce and separation. Based on harmonized
retrospective life history data from eight European countries, we study the risk of divorce and
separation from the perspective of adult unions and the perspective of children born into these
unions. The analysis connects adult and child perspectives, focusing on union cohort changes (1945
to 2005) in the associations between parenthood, education, and (parental) separation. Our findings
show that trends differ substantially between adult and child perspectives. First, the cohort surge in
divorce and separation is stronger in adults than in children. Second, inequality in the risk of
divorce and separation grows faster in children than in adults. For both trends, disparities between
adult and child perspectives grow across cohorts due to increasingly negative associations between
parenthood, education, and separation. In several countries, the separation surge has been trivial for
children of higher-educated couples.
Quashie, N. T., Arpino, B., Antczak, R., & Mair, C. A. (2021). Childlessness and health among
older adults: Variation across five outcomes and 20 countries. The Journals of Gerontology:
Series B, 76(2), 348-359. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbz153
No previous study to the best of our knowledge has examined the association between childlessness
and health using a wide range of countries and health outcomes. This study improves previous
literature by examining the relationship between “childlessness” (1 = childless for any reason, 0 =
parent of biological, step, or adopted child) and health across 20 countries and five health outcomes.
Drawing on cross-sectional harmonized data from the family of Health and Retirement Surveys
across the United States (HRS, Wave 11), Europe (SHARE, Waves 4 and 5), Mexico (MHAS,
Wave 3), and China (CHARLS, Wave 2), we use logistic regression models to estimate the
association between childlessness and poor health (poor self-rated health, 1 or more ADL
limitations, 1 or more IADL limitations, 1 or more chronic conditions, and depression) in a sample
of adults aged 50 and older across 20 countries (N = 109,648). Our results point to an absence of
associations between childlessness and health, and suggest that childlessness may be associated
with better (e.g., Mexico, Hungary) or worse health (e.g., Austria, Estonia, Netherlands, Poland) in
cer- tain contexts and for certain measures. Discussion: We discuss these findings in light of the
meaning of childlessness, as well as cross-national economic, social, and cultural contexts to
provide suggestions for aging policy and future research.
Brons, M. D., Liefbroer, A. C., & Ganzeboom, H. B. (2021). Parental socioeconomic status
and the timing of first marriage. Demographic Research, 45, 469-516.
https://doi.org/10.4054/DemRes.2021.45.15
Previous research has shown that individuals from high-status families enter marriage later than
those from low-status families. However, in many Western societies, it has become common to
cohabit prior to marriage. Does this change the link between parental socioeconomic status (SES)
and marriage timing? This study examines to what extent the impact of parental SES on the timing
of first marriage weakens after young adults start a cohabiting union. It also examines cross-
national variation in the link between parental SES and marriage timing before and after young
adults cohabit and whether this variation depends on countries’ position in the cohabitation
transition. We apply discrete-time hazard models and meta-analytical tools using data from 20
Western countries. To examine whether the cohabitation stage of countries explains country
differences, we construct a four-stage cohabitation typology. In most countries, higher parental SES
results in later entry into marriage. The impact of parental SES on marriage timing weakens
considerably after young adults entered a cohabiting union. Substantial cross-national variation is
found in the strength of the link between parental SES and marriage timing. However, this variation
cannot be explained by the cohabitation stage countries are in.