A Matter of Number, Age or Marriage? Children and Marital Dissolution in Italy

Todesco, Lorenzo

doi:10.1007/s11113-010-9190-1

Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…They further showed evidence that fathers invest more in the family and spend more time when the first child is a son or when there are male children. Findings from other developed countries seem to align with the hypothesis that children's sex composition does not affect divorce risks (Leigh 2009;Tjøtta and Vaage 2003;Todesco 2011;Vignoli and Ferro 2009). Interestingly, some review papers tend to have swayed the argument in favour of a negative effect of having girl child/ren on risk of divorce (Lundberg 2005;Raley and Bianchi 2006).…”

Section: Review Of Empirical Evidencementioning

confidence: 55%

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Premarital birth, children’s sex composition and marital instability among women in sub-Saharan Africa

2017

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Anecdotal evidence in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) suggests that it is unlikely for marriages with children to break up, especially when the children are male. To provide new empirical evidence, this study was conducted to investigate the effect of premarital birth and sex composition of children on marital instability (divorce or separation) among ever-married women in SSA. Data from a weighted sample of 205,997 women from Demographic and Health Surveys conducted in 26 sub-Saharan African countries between 2011 and 2014 were analysed. Stratified by sub-region, analysis involved the use of descriptive statistics and multiple logistic regression models with robust standard errors. Parity-specific logistic regression models were fitted to investigate the association between sex composition and marital instability at parities 1, 2, 3 and 4?. The percentage of women with experience of marital instability in the four sub-regions was: Western (4.6%), Central (12.0%), Eastern (10.5%) and Southern Africa (11.4%). Premarital birth was significantly associated with marital instability in Western (OR = 1.52, p \ 0.05), Central (OR = 1.22, p \ 0.05), Eastern (OR = 1.39, p \ 0.05) and Southern Africa (OR = 1.25, p \ 0.05). In Western Africa, at parities 1-2, women with female children were significantly more likely to be divorced or separated. At parities 3 and above, there was no significant difference in the odds of marital

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Section: Review Of Empirical Evidencementioning

confidence: 55%

“…Secondly, women with children may not easily gain entry into another marital union. This fear makes many women avoid divorce, knowing that with children, re-marriage is difficult (Diekmann and Schmidheiny 2004;Leigh 2009;Todesco 2011).…”

Section: Theoretical Perspectives and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Premarital birth, children’s sex composition and marital instability among women in sub-Saharan Africa

2017

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“…Empirical studies have generally demonstrated a positive association between the presence of children and marital stability. Various studies in the US and European countries have found that, after accounting for the duration of marriage and other confounding variables, childlessness significantly elevates the risk of marital disruption (Berrington & Diamond, 1999;Morgan & Rindfuss, 1985;Andersson, 1997;Diekmann & Engelhardt, 1999, Todesco, 2011. There is, however, a non-linear relationship between the number of children and the risk of divorce.…”

Section: The Number Of Children Children's Age and Marital Dissolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Children born out of marriage with a different biological parent could have little or a negative effect on marriage stability. They are generally not considered a marital-specific capital, nor would they inspire a strong feeling of obligation from the non-biological parent (Todesco, 2011). Remarriages involving the presence of stepchildren have been shown to be more prone to disruption than those without stepchildren (Waite & Lillard, 1991).…”

Section: Stepchildren Premarital Conception and Marital Dissolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children and marital dissolution in China

Xu¹

2022

J Pop Research

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Using data for women from the 2010, 2012 and 2014 Chinese Family Panel Studies, this study investigated several aspects of children’s effects on the risk of marital dissolution, including the number of children, their age and sex composition, and the timing of conception relative to marriage. Because these explanatory variables are potentially endogenous, marital dissolution was jointly modelled with the processes of marriage formation, marital childbearing and nonmarital childbearing, and the sequencing of events and unobserved correlation across processes accounted for. The results demonstrated that childlessness significantly elevates the risk of divorce whereas the first child has the strongest marriage stabilising effect. Reflecting the strong son preference in rural China, having boys was shown to markedly reduce the risk of parental divorce among rural women. Whether a child is conceived within or out of wedlock has no significant causal effect on marital dissolution insofar as it belongs to both parents. However, positive residual correlation between the processes of divorce and nonmarital childbearing suggests the potential selection of women with non-traditional family behaviours into marital dissolution.

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“…Findings also suggest that the ages of the children are an essential predictor of divorce, as people are reluctant to separate when they have young children. The likelihood of divorce has been found to be lowest when children are young and to rise as they age, although findings vary somewhat from country to country (Andersson 1997;Bernardi and Martínez-Pastor 2011;Hart et al 2017;Jalovaara 2001;Kalmijn and Poortman 2006;Todesco 2011;Twenge et al 2003;Vignoli and Ferro 2009).…”

Section: The Relation Between Children and Divorcementioning

confidence: 99%

The More the Merrier? The Effect of Children on Divorce in a Pronatalist Society

Kaplan

Endeweld²,

Herbst-Debby

2020

European Studies of Population

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While most studies on the effect of children on divorce focus on countries with fertility levels below or near replacement level, we explore whether the stabilizing effect of children on marriage holds in the OECD country with the highest fertility rate-Israel. This high rate allowed us to examine the non-linear effects of having many children on divorce. We also examined whether the pattern of this relationship depends on the couple's ethnic and economic position. Based on a dataset which merged administrative data from the tax authorities with the National Insurance Institute database, we took a random sample of 25% of all women who married in 2003 and followed them until 2015. Findings for the total sample revealed a positive, albeit non-linear, effect of number of children on divorce, while young children at home decreased divorce risks. However, the effect of number of children on the likelihood to divorce was dependent upon income and ethnic group. Children stabilized marriage among Israeli-Palestinians and destabilized it among Israeli-Jews, though with decreasing effects from the first to the third child. Findings are discussed with regard to the importance of examining relations between children and divorce across groups in the society.

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A Matter of Number, Age or Marriage? Children and Marital Dissolution in Italy

Abstract: Family, Italy, Divorce, Marital dissolution, Children,

Cited by 8 publications

References 38 publications

Premarital birth, children’s sex composition and marital instability among women in sub-Saharan Africa

Premarital birth, children’s sex composition and marital instability among women in sub-Saharan Africa

Children and marital dissolution in China

The More the Merrier? The Effect of Children on Divorce in a Pronatalist Society

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