Explore the vast range of titles available.

Previous research has documented that children who do not live with both biological parents fare somewhat worse on a variety of outcomes than those who do. In this article, which is the introduction to the Special Issue on \"Family dynamics and children's well-being and life chances in Europe,\" we refine this picture by identifying variation in this conclusion depending on the family transitions and subpopulations studied. We start by discussing the general evidence accumulated for parental separation and ask whether the same picture emerges from research on other family transitions and structures. Subsequently, we review studies that have aimed to deal with endogeneity and discuss whether issues of causality challenge the general picture of family transitions lowering child well-being. Finally, we discuss whether previous evidence finds effects of family transitions on child outcomes to differ between children from different socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds, and across countries and time-periods studied. Each of the subsequent articles in this Special Issue contributes to these issues. Two articles provide evidence on how several less often studied family forms relate to child outcomes in the European context. Two other articles in this Special Issue contribute by resolving several key questions in research on variation in the consequences of parental separation by socioeconomic and immigrant background, two areas of research that have produced conflicting results so far.

Using sibling data from the German Life History Study and fixed-effects models, I find that birth order has a strong negative effect on educational attainment in West Germany—being born later translates to less education. The strength of the birth order effect is comparable to those of many commonly used family background indicators. This finding contrasts many sceptical accounts of birth order found in the sociological and psychological literatures. The results of this study also show the sensitivity of birth order estimates to model specification, pointing to a likely cause for conflicting results in the previous literature. Birth order effects are weaker for females and in large families, but do not vary according to families' socioeconomic characteristics. The effects are likewise strong at transition from compulsory school to Gymnasium, but not significant on the transition from Gymnasium to university. Overall, the results do not support theories emphasizing the dilution of socioeconomic resources, nor do they support theories on age-crossovers in birth order effects at around age 11. However, the dilution of other family resources such as parental time and attention is a possible candidate. The weaker birth order effects among females can reflect the traditionally gender unequal returns to education, in which intellectual and school performance advantages to lower birth order do not translate into better educational attainment among German women. Overall, these findings underline the importance of birth order in shaping socioeconomic achievement and, more generally, of the factors that affect the experiences and inequalities of children growing up in the same family.

Despite widespread attention paid to the negative correlation between female education and divorce, we lack an explanation for it. In this study we use social exchange theory to assess two broad groups of explanations. According to the 'marital attraction' explanation, educated women's marriages have higher marital quality and marital satisfaction. According to the 'barriers to divorce' explanation, educated women's marriages include factors that raise the cost of divorcing. Many previous studies have referred to variants of the former explanation, whereas the latter has been less prominent. Our objective is to investigate the explanatory power of these two explanations. We use discrete-time event history models to document the educational gradient of divorce from first marriages using the British Household Panel Survey (N = 1,263) for the years 1996-2009. We subsequently perform a mediation analysis to explain the educational gradient in divorce and a path analysis to distinguish which factors shape marital attraction and barriers to divorce. Female education is positively related to marital stability, but this association is only partly explained by educational differences in marital satisfaction and variables that shape attractions. Variables interpreted as affecting barriers to divorce, such as home ownership and having divorced parents, provide an at least equally important explanation of the educational gradient in divorce.

Estimating the number of individuals living in a country is an essential task for demographers. This study assesses the potential bias in estimating the size of different migrant populations due to over-coverage in population registers. Over-coverage-individuals registered but not living in a country-is an increasingly pressing phenomenon; however, there is no common understanding of how to deal with over-coverage in demographic research. This study examines different approaches to and improvements in over-coverage estimation using Swedish total population register data. We assess over-coverage levels across migrant groups, test how estimates of age-specific death and fertility rates are affected when adjusting for over-coverage, and examine whether over-coverage can explain part of the healthy migrant paradox. Our results confirm the existence of over-coverage and we find substantial changes in mortality and fertility rates, when adjusted, for people of migrating age. Accounting for over-coverage is particularly important for correctly estimating migrant fertility.

Objective This study examines how the receipt of the cash‐for‐care (CFC) benefit affects short‐ and long‐term risks of union dissolution. Background Several theories predict that couples' gendered division of labor decreases their risk of separation, either due to increased partnership satisfaction or because it establishes economic dependency. Family policies such as the Finnish CFC benefit, which is paid if a young child does not attend public daycare, may encourage such a gendered division of labor, at least temporarily. Method Using Finnish register data, this study analyzes the first childbearing unions of 38,093 couples between 1987 and 2009. Discrete‐time event history analyses and fixed effects models for nonrepeated events are applied. Results The results suggest a lower separation risk while the benefit is received as compared to couples who do not use it, but no effect in the long‐term. Fixed effects models that control for selection into CFC indicate postponement of separation until after take‐up. Higher‐income mothers show a stronger postponement effect, possibly due to greater income following leave. Conclusion CFC use, which signals a temporary gendered division of labor and losses in mothers' earnings, predicts a lower separation risk during receipt of the benefit, but not beyond. Implications Policies that affect the division of paid and unpaid labor at best only temporarily reduce dissolution risks.

In this paper, we use multilevel growth-curve analysis to model occupational stratification across West German careers for cohorts born between 1919 and 1971. We argue that a life-course approach gives a more appropriate perspective into social stratification by focusing on the permanence of inequalities across human lives. With data from the German Life History Study (GLHS), our primary interest is in the amount and timing of career progression and the ways in which educational attainment, class background, and cohort context shape them. We confirm previous findings of limited career progression and permanence in occupational inequality. Thus, career mobility can correct for initial disadvantages only to a limited degree. We also confirm the strong role played by the standardized and stratified German educational system, which channels workers into specific occupations with strict boundaries. We find a substantial gross effect of class background, which is strongly mediated by educational attainment for women but not for men. We do not find any general indications of a trend in change across cohorts, although there are some weak indications that men who entered the labor market in the problematic 1970s had weaker career growth. We conclude by discussing the advantages of a life-course approach to occupational stratification and the possibilities of growth-curve analysis to answer pertinent questions in research on careers and occupational mobility.

In a series of papers, William J. Goode argued that the relationship between modernization and the class composition of divorce is inverse. Starting from his hypothesis, we examine the relationship between female education and the risk of divorce over time in 17 countries. We expect that the relationship differs across countries and across time, so that women with higher education have a higher risk of divorce in countries and at times when the social and economic costs of divorce are high, and that there is no relationship or a negative relationship where these costs are lower. Using discrete-time event-history techniques on data on first marriages from the Fertility and Family Surveys (FFS), we find that women with higher education had a higher risk of divorce in France, Greece, Italy, Poland, and Spain. We do not find a relationship between education and divorce in Estonia, Finland, West-Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Sweden, and Switzerland, nor, depending on the model specification, in Flanders and Norway. In Austria, Lithuania, and the United States, the educational gradient of divorce is negative. Furthermore, as predicted by our hypotheses, the educational gradient becomes increasingly negative in Flanders, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden, and the United States. We explore this variation across time and countries in more detail with multilevel models and direct measures on the legal, social, and economic environment of the countries. We find that the de-institutionalization of marriage and unconventional family practices are associated with a negative educational gradient of divorce, while welfare state expenditure is associated with a more positive gradient.

Immigration and family change are two demographic processes that have changed the face of European societies and are associated with inequalities in child outcomes. Yet there is little research outside the USA on whether the effects of family dynamics on children's life chances vary by immigrant background. We asked whether the effect of parental separation on educational achievement varies between immigrant backgrounds (ancestries) in Sweden. We used Swedish population register data on two birth cohorts (born in 1995 and 1996) of Swedish-born children and analyzed parental separation penalties on grade sums and non-passing grades (measured at ninth grade) across ten ancestry groups, defined by the mother's country of birth. We found that the parental separation effects vary across ancestries, being weakest among children with Chilean-born mothers and strongest among children with mothers born in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In general, the effects were weaker in groups in which parental separation was a more common experience.

Objective 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. Background 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. Results 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.

The aim of this study is to investigate if experiencing childhood trauma (emotional abuse, emotional neglect, physical abuse, physical neglect, or sexual abuse) or a greater total burden of childhood trauma increase the risk of fear of childbirth (FOC). This study included 2556 women living in Southwest Finland. Women were recruited during routine ultrasound visits at gestational week (gwk) 12. Experiencing childhood trauma was assessed in retrospect with the Trauma and Distress Scale (TADS) questionnaire completed at gwk 14. Information on the diagnosis of FOC (ICD-10 diagnosis O99.80) was obtained from the Finnish Medical Birth Register. Associations between childhood trauma (domains and total TADS score) and FOC were analyzed with logistic regression in unadjusted and adjusted models. Emotional abuse (aOR 1.25, 95% CI 1.10–1.42), emotional neglect (aOR 1.26, 95% CI 1.08–1.46), and a greater total burden of trauma (TADS total score) (aOR 1.06, 95% CI 1.02–1.10) increased the risk for FOC. We found no evidence for physical abuse (aOR 1.15, 95% CI 1.00–1.32), physical neglect (aOR 1.06, 95% CI 0.92–1.22), and sexual abuse (aOR 1.24, 95% CI 0.99–1.56) associating with FOC. Childhood emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and a greater total burden of childhood trauma increase the risk for FOC. However, the childhood traumatic events were inquired in retrospect, which could distort the events.