The role of extended kin in shaping families

Divorce has rapidly increased since the 1970s in Japan. Existing research suggests that the expansion of socio-economic disparities with deteriorating macro-economic performance is a major cause of the rising divorce rate. However, not only socio-economic factors but also family background characteristics may play an important role, particularly in a ‘strong family’ country such as Japan. This paper investigates the effects of intergenerational family ties on the risk of divorce, using retrospective life history data from a nationally representative survey in Japan. In the past decade, much has been written and discussed about the associations between strong family ties and low fertility, however, little attention has been paid to the relationships between strong family ties and divorce. The results of discrete-time logistic regression models suggest that patrilocal co-residence and residential proximity as well as the presence of young children substantially reduce the risk of divorce. The fact that intergenerational co-residence can stabilize marriage denotes that weakening intergenerational ties or ‘weak family’ may entail a higher risk of marital dissolution, given the long-term decline in macro-economic performance. The results would provide valuable insights into the links between strong family and demographic behavior.

According to theory of second demographic transition change in norms and attitudes towards family formation should lead to increase in proportion of extramarital births and simultaneous decrease in proportion of marital births. However in countries like Poland significant fraction of marital births are those conceived outside of pre-maritally and delivered within marriage (26% bridal pregnancies in 2011). This pattern results from existence of normative tension related to legitimization of out-of-wedlock births. Our main research hypothesis states that this results mostly from pressure from older generation to obey the norm and is sanctioned by degree of economic support given to the youth. Thus, we expect higher incidence of bridal pregnancies among families with higher economic and social status.
In order to test above hypotheses we use data from GGS conducted in Poland. Additionally the results for Poland are confronted with results coming from other countries with high (Italy, Spain) and low (Netherlands) incidence of bridal pregnancies. Analyses are aimed at measurement of intergenerational pressure via social proximity of generations, economic status of older generation and economic status of young couple. For the purpose of modeling we use multinomial logit model for our outcome variable (type of family formation).

The past decades have been characterized by a considerable postponement of childbearing behaviours. Given that women who postpone childbearing come, on average, from higher educational and social strata, children of older mothers are expected to benefit from this process. However, evidence presented by the “weathering” hypothesis literature suggests that ethnic minority children do not necessarily benefit from their mothers’ older age at (first) birth, suggesting that the process and outcome of postponement could be seen as qualitatively different processes for subgroups of the population. In light of these differences, it is important to consider whether any other aspect of the family sphere, in addition to/or rather than socioeconomic status, alters as maternal age at (first) birth increases. For example, knowledge of whether patterns of kin support change with increasing maternal age at birth is not well-established. This is an oversight as diminished participation in kin networks could have negative consequences for ethnic minority mothers and their children as it could be associated with more stressful and difficult pregnancies. This paper intends to investigate whether in the U.K. patterns of kin support change with increasing maternal age at birth and differently across ethnic groups.

We extend recent research on relationships between living arrangements and the economic well-being of single-parent families in the U.S. by using comparable data from five countries and by examining measures of wealth in addition to income. Preliminary tabulations of harmonized data from the Cross-National Equivalent File (CNEF) demonstrate marked cross-national differences in the living arrangements of unpartnered parents, with lone-parent families relatively common in Germany and coresidence with parents most common in Korea. There are also clear differences in the economic benefits that single parents derive from coresidence with parents, which are most pronounced in Korea and relatively limited in the U.S. Findings from this project will have implications for understanding the ways in which demographic change and living arrangements contribute to differences in levels and trends in income and wealth accumulation across countries and in comparison to the United States.