Creating Stepfamilies: Integrating Children Into the Study of Union Formation

Abstract

Creating Stepfamilies: Integrating Children Into the Study of Union Formation As a result of the growth in out-of-wedlock childbearing and union instability, adults contemplating forming a new union are often already parents. This article examines the role of children in stepfamily formation, both coresident and not, using the 2,594 respondents in the National Survey of Families and Households who were not living with a partner in 1987/ 1988. We consider children of the respondent and of the partner, which allows us to examine the determinants of entering a stepfamily. We found that being a coresident father dramatically increases forming a union with a woman with children. Women's coresidential children reduce women's odds of forming unions with men who do not have children and increase them for unions with men who do.

Cross-national differences in women's repartnering behaviour in Europe: The role of individual demographic characteristics

“…Nonetheless, although the acceptance of divorce has increased slightly over time in many European countries (Liefbroer and Fokkema 2008), in some countries negative attitudes towards divorce have prevailed when children are involved (Rijken and Liefbroer 2012). Persistent high divorce rates over a longer period of time may also have indirect effects on repartnering through the intergenerational transmission of attitudes: Some studies have suggested that individuals who experience nontraditional family forms in childhood are more likely to marry someone previously married or with children (Bernhardt and Goldscheider 2002;Goldscheider and Kaufman 2006;Goldscheider and Sassler 2006).…”

Men’s economic status and marital transitions of fragile families

“…Educational attainment also appears to be very important. College-educated men are significantly more likely to marry than to either to remain single or to cohabit, relative to their less educated counterparts (Oppenheimer 2003;Sassler and Goldscheider 2004), The same educational gradient has become evident among women as well (Goldstein and Kenney 2001).…”

“…Individual-level studies find that men"s employment, earnings, and educational attainment are significantly related to subsequent marriage (Lloyd and South 1996;Oppenheimer, Kalmijn, and Lim 1997;Sassler and Goldscheider 2004). Full-time employment also significantly increases men"s odds of marrying versus remaining single (Oppenheimer 2003;Sassler and Goldscheider 2004). Oppenheimer"s (2003) research finds a strong threshold effect for the impact of earnings on the formation of marital unions; not until men earned above $20,000 ($24,460 in 1999 dollars adjusted for inflation) 4 was the relationship with marriage positive, among both white and black men.…”

“…Though weakening in importance, men"s ability to fill the provider role remains a consistent requirement for marriage across the class spectrum (Gibson-Davis, Edin, and McLanahan 2005;Sassler and Goldscheider 2004;Smock, Manning, and Porter 2005), as well as across nations (Heard 2011;Kravdal 1999;Reneflot 2006;Wiik, Bernhardt, and Noack 2010). While various measures of a "good living" are important prerequisites for marriage, fiscal concerns appear to be less salient for transitions to parenthood or for informal unions (Gibson-Davis 2009).…”

Long-term trends of men’s co-residence with children in England and Wales

“…In some countries, there is evidence that divorced fathers re-partner to a higher extent than divorced mothers (Goldscheider and Sassler 2006;Beaujouan 2012) and we would also expect this to be the case in Britain. As 30 per cent of separated women with one child went on to have a child with a new partner in Britain, and 10 to 20 per cent of women with a higher number of children from their earlier marriage subsequently re-partnered (Jeffries, Berrington, and Diamond 2000), the trend of forming second families might also have a considerable effect on father-child co-residence among middle-aged men.…”