The influence of parental educational attainment on the partnership context at first birth in 16 Western societies

Judith C. Koops*, Aart C. Liefbroer, Anne H. Gauthier

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

In the US, growing up with parents with a low socio-economic status (SES) has been shown to increase the chance of having a birth outside marriage. However, less is known about the influence of parental SES in other Western countries. The current paper examines the association between parental educational attainment with the partnership context at first birth in 16 European and North American countries, by differentiating births within marriage, within cohabitation, or while being single. Moreover, we test whether the association between parental education and partnership context at childbirth changes over cohorts and whether its influence changes when controlling for own educational attainment. Data from the Generations and Gender Programme were used, as well as data from the American National Survey of Family Growth, the Canadian General Social Survey, and the Dutch Survey on Family Formation. The results show that in North American and East European countries, but not in West European countries, lower parental education increases the risk of having a birth within cohabitation. Moreover, in North American countries and half of the West and East European countries, lower parental education increases the risk of having a birth while being single. The association of parental education with the partnership context at birth tends to change furthermore over cohorts, although no clear pattern could be observed between countries. The study suggests that the intergenerational transmission of education is an important mechanism in explaining the influence of parental education, although other mechanisms also appear to be at work.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)533-557
Number of pages25
JournalEuropean Journal of Population
Volume33
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Oct 2017

Funding

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013)/ERC Grant Agreement No. 324178 (Project: Contexts of Opportunity. PI: Aart C. Liefbroer).

FundersFunder number
Seventh Framework ProgrammeFP/2007-2013, 324178
European Research Council

    Keywords

    • Childbearing
    • Cohabitation
    • Europe
    • Fertility
    • North America
    • Single parenthood

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