A life course perspective: women’s childhood background and family formation trajectories in low-fertility South Korea

Abstract

Despite increasing interest in understanding fertility from a life course perspective, few studies have examined family formation pathways through a holistic lens. Using women’s birth history and individual-level data from the Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women and Families, we conducted sequence analysis to gain a comprehensive picture of family formation trajectories across time. We identified six clusters representing a gradient from late/low to early/high rates of marriage and fertility. Growing up with parents of higher socioeconomic status and a smaller family size showed links to pathways that delays and declines in marriage and fertility characterised. On the other hand, being born in a non-metropolitan area related to earlier family formation. The findings support the idea that considering life course circumstances and context could enhance our understanding of marriage and fertility trends. Specifically, intergenerational influences, interdependencies between the timing and sequence of transitions and the endogeneity of multiple life trajectories are important to consider.