Family Formation Process Research Articles

Migration, Partner Selection, and Fertility in Germany: How Many Children are Born in Mixed Unions?

For the German context, we investigate whether the number of children ever born differs between mixed unions (exogamous unions between natives and migrants or migrant descendants) and endogamous unions (unions among co-ethnics). Our theoretical considerations are derived from assimilation theories, which view exogamous unions as indicators of assimilation processes, and the framework on migrant fertility. The migrant (or descendant) partner in an exogamous union may adapt to the majority group, both partners may adapt to each other, or both partners may constitute a selected group in their fertility preferences. However, due to the higher likelihood of conflicts within the partnership and of separation, exogamy may disrupt family formation processes and depress couples’ fertility. Drawing on data from the GSOEP (1984–2020), we estimate generalized Poisson regressions. The results reveal that the number of children ever born is higher in exogamous unions than in endogamous native couples. This general pattern largely persists across migrant generations and regions of origin, but we identify gender differences. While fertility in exogamous unions of native women/migrant (descendant) men is not statistically different from fertility in native/native couples, unions of migrant (descendant) women/native men have more children, especially when controlling for socio-demographic confounders. Our results demonstrate that in the German context, exogamy does not lead to fertility disruptions, and is not straightforwardly associated with assimilation to the fertility of the majority group. Instead, differences in gendered partner choice patterns and life-course transitions may influence the number of children exogamous couples have.

Legal Status and Fertility Patterns: Regulation-Induced Disruption Among Previously Undocumented Immigrant Women in Italy

We explore, using a unique survey dataset containing retrospective information on immigrants’ legal status, the relationship between previous irregular experience—from arrival up to the first residence permit achievement—and fertility patterns among non-EU immigrant women in Italy. While competing hypotheses explaining migrants’ fertility behaviour have been recurrently offered, there is a substantial lack of knowledge on the role of undocumented experience as a contextual barrier in shaping international migrants’ family formation processes. We adopt a life-course approach, employing event history analysis and Poisson regression modelling, to investigate how irregularity among immigrant women intertwines with the timing of the first childbirth and the total number of births occurred in Italy. We find that irregular experience—as a time-dependent process—delays the transition to childbirth post-migration. Furthermore, having experienced irregular status reduces completed fertility, offering few possibilities to catch-up over the life-course with fertility levels of women continuously having the legal status. Findings suggest long-lasting effects of irregular status and the potential disruption of migrant’s fertility induced by migration policies, admission systems, and regulation factors. The reduced possibility of legal entry channels and lack of migration policies for planning and managing migration into Italy may thus have an impact on family formation trajectories among international immigrant women.

Families and Households of the Pribidola in the Municipality of Srebrenica during the 19th Century

The turbulent past has marked the entire area of Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially its peripheral parts, which were often influenced by violent demographic changes, reflecting on various population structures. The wider area of Podrinje was affected by forced migrations of the Bosniak population during the 19th and 20th centuries. The expulsion of Bosniaks from the Principality of Serbia in the early 1830s significantly impacted the demographic structures of the Bosnian Podrinje region, especially the Osat region. This study does not explore various anthropogeographic changes in the settlement of Pribidol, whether they occurred during normal or forced social events, but rather investigates the process of family formation and households during the 19th century. The most important historical sources used for the mentioned research are: the Ottoman census of male household members of the Srebrenica District in 1850/51, the Ottoman cadaster of 1867/75, the list of residential property owners from 1880/84, as well as the land registry books of the Srebrenica District in 1894. This study explored the families that lived in the settlement of Pribidol during the 19th century. These are the following families: Ahmetović, Aljić, Begić, Dervišević, Džananović, Halilović, Husić, Ibišević, Ibrahimović, Janković, Marković, Mešanović, Mitrović, Muminović, Mustafić, Osmanović, Salkić, and Smajić. In the Muslim area of Pribidol, 19 households, or family households, were recorded, with a total of 79 male individuals, with an average age of 20.1 years. In the then-independent settlement of Pribidol, 15 households were recorded, with 59 male individuals, with an average age of 19.0 years. In the Barakovići mahalla, 3 households were recorded, with 14 male individuals, and in the independent settlement of Zgunja, one household was recorded with a total of 6 male individuals. Therefore, the total population of Bosniak Pribidol was around 160 individuals of both sexes. During the conducted census in 1850/51, only two families had a family surname, which changed in the early 1880s. According to the 1879 census in the settlement of Gaj (Turkish Pribidol), there were 171 inhabitants (93 male individuals) all of Bosniak nationality. There were 25 houses and an equal number of apartments in the settlement, with an average of 6.8 individuals per household. The 1895 census recorded 315 inhabitants (158 male individuals). There were 255 Bosniaks and 60 Orthodox inhabitants. There were a total of 50 houses (2 uninhabited) with 50 households - an average size of 6.3 members. Between 1850/51 and 1895, there was a significant increase in the population of the settlement of Pribidol, especially in the last census of 1895. This growth was conditioned by the settlement of Orthodox inhabitants, who constituted 25% of the total population in 1895. The list of residential property owners from 1880/84 identified three new mahallas (Kadrići, Podševar, and Živkovići) compared to the census of 1850/51. These Bosniak families of the settlement of Pribidol persisted throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, either through male or female lines, except for changes in the family surname among married female inhabitants. Some family surnames ceased to exist in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, either due to the extinction of their male members or their emigration from the settlement of Pribidol. This particularly applies to families with the surnames Ahmetović, Halilović, and Mešanović. The number of households (families) increased among other Bosniak families until the mid-20th century, and some of their members moved to other settlements in the Podrinje region, primarily around the cities of Bijeljina, Bratunac, and Srebrenica.

Living apart together in contemporary Spain: Diverse motivations across life stages

Living-apart-together (LAT) partnerships are gaining prominence in many high-income societies, prompting ongoing discussions about their significance and their role in the family formation process. This study provides a contemporary update on LAT relationships in Spain, with a specific emphasis on variations across different life stages. The study focuses on several key aspects: (1) recent trends in the prevalence of LAT relationships, (2) socio-demographic factors associated with being in a LAT relationship, (3) joint influence of both partners’ characteristics, and (4) short-term intentions to co-reside. Using data from the 2018 Spanish Fertility Survey, we employ logistic regression models to analyze the factors influencing individuals’ likelihood of being in a LAT relationship as opposed to a co-residential partnership. Our findings reveal a noticeable rise in LAT partnerships in Spain over the past two decades, except among the youngest age group. Personal motivations and socially attributed meanings of LAT relationships, however, differ depending on an individual's life stage. Among young adults, LAT partnerships largely serve as a transitional phase in the family formation process, preceding co-residence with a partner. In this early adulthood stage, unemployment and temporary work contracts – affecting any of the partners – often hinder household formation, but intentions to co-reside in the near future remain strong. In contrast, LAT partnerships in the mid-life stage often stem from a desire to maintain personal independence and are frequently linked to prior partnership and reproductive biographies.

Differences in medically assisted reproduction use by sexual identity and partnership: a prospective cohort of cisgender women.

Differences in medically assisted reproduction use by sexual identity and partnership: a prospective cohort of cisgender women.

“It's just a technological version of us”: Three‐generation family WhatsApp groups in Israel

AbstractObjectiveThis qualitative study analyzes communication practices, roles, and rules developed by family members while participating in a three‐generation WhatsApp family group (WFG).BackgroundAlthough instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp have become increasingly popular with families worldwide, study findings of the digital family formation process, roles, rules, and family communication styles have remained fragmented. Combining the rich familism ideology with technological skills makes the Israel digital family a good study case.MethodWe conducted 43 semistructured interviews with WFG participants representing three generations of Jewish Israeli families.ResultsAll WFGs were organized in the form of a three‐generation family tree, including one or a couple of older people in the core and a significant number of their younger relatives in the upper tree levels, where WFG membership was used as a marker of family belonging. WFG members played roles of kinkeepers, flickerers (rarely commenting participants), and silent warm experts. WFGs used two rules for communication—problematic discourse avoidance and exaggerated writing style—and two strategies for enforcing those rules—temporarily excluding rule breakers from the general group or ignoring messages of offending participant(s).ConclusionMaintaining the WFG is not a single initiative but a collective, well‐coordinated endeavor of all family generations, which helps to include grandparents in the digital family, gives WFG participants a sense of family belonging, and reproduces the image of the untroubled family.ImplicationsThe research findings can be helpful for educators, family therapists, social workers, and social policy professionals. Moreover, the study's results can benefit families who want to open WhatsApp family groups.

Parental depression and their children's marriage timing: The long-term consequences of parental mental disorders

Although decades of research documents powerful associations between parents' characteristics and their children's marital behaviors, the role of parental mental health has largely been ignored, despite the high prevalence of mental disorders and their strong potential to shape multiple dimensions of family life. Many studies examine other consequences of mothers' mental disorders, particularly for young children, but rarely do studies investigate the consequences of fathers' mental disorders, especially the potential for long-term consequences. We construct a theoretical framework for the study of intergenerational influences on family formation behaviors, integrating parental mental health, and emphasizing the potential for father's disorders to shape their children's lives. To investigate these associations, we use new intergenerational panel data featuring clinically validated diagnostic measures of parental mental health for both mothers and fathers, assessed independently. Results demonstrate that fathers' major depressive disorder is associated with significantly earlier marriage timing among sons. These important new findings provide insights into key priorities for social research on family formation processes and intergenerational influences across many domains.

Navigating Parenthood: A Study of Family Formation and Parenting Experiences Among Same-sex Couples in the Philippines

This qualitative research study explored the family formation processes and parenting experiences of same-sex couples in the unique socio-cultural context of the Philippines. While same-sex relationships and LGBTQ + rights have gained increasing recognition globally, the Philippines remains a conservative society with deeply rooted traditional norms and religious influences. It delved into the complexities of family formation, including relationship initiation, and decision-making processes regarding parenting. Findings suggest that same-sex couples in the Philippines employ diverse strategies to create families, such as adoption, and raising children of a family relative. These strategies are often influenced by factors such as familial support, and socio-cultural norms. The parenting experiences of same-sex couples revealed both shared challenges, such as discrimination and exclusion, as well as unique opportunities for reshaping traditional gender roles within the household. By highlighting the lived experiences of these couples, this study advocates for a more inclusive understanding of family structures and challenges the prevailing heteronormative discourse. The findings underscored the need for policy initiatives that safeguard the rights of LGBTQ + individuals and families, while fostering social acceptance and understanding within the Philippines’ cultural framework.

Does forming a nuclear family increase religiosity? Longitudinal evidence from the British Household Panel Survey

Abstract This study investigates how far the nuclear family—in terms of entering cohabitation and marriage and having a first and second child—affects religious salience, religious attendance, and activity in religious organizations. Previous research has shown that religious individuals are more likely to marry, and have higher fertility, than non-religious individuals. Less is known about how far the nuclear family also affects religiosity. This study presents longitudinal evidence on how religious factors change within the life-course of individuals after entering cohabitation or marriage and after having a first or second child in up to 14 waves of the British Household Panel Survey collected between 1991 and 2009. The comparison between longitudinal and cross-sectional results indicates how far religious factors affect family formation processes. All religious factors investigated (salience, attendance, activity) increased when people became parents, as well as when they married, but not when they started to cohabit. Most of these effects are long-lasting and they hold across age, gender and cohort groups.

Family formation under the law: How immigration laws construct contemporary Latino/a immigrant families in the U.S.

AbstractSociologists of the family have established that U.S. laws play a fundamental role in shaping the outcomes of family members. This article builds on this work by examining how immigration law is instrumental to the family formation processes of contemporary Latino/a immigrant families. Drawing on insights from sociology of the family and immigrant incorporation literature, I argue that immigration laws aid in the creation of family typologies among Latino/a immigrants. This argument is supported by providing a historical overview of key federal immigration laws that affect Latino/a immigrant families and a discussion of five Latino/a immigrant family typologies: citizen/lawful permanent resident families, transnational families, separated families, mixed‐status families, and undocumented families. This article concludes with implications for scholars, students, and policymakers on how laws can be used to create harm but can also undo harm against immigrant families.

The role of educational attainment and educational pairings in women's marriage behavior in Turkey

This article focuses on educational attainment in the family formation processes in Turkey, specifically the increase in women's age at first marriage. Using the women's questionnaires from 2008 and 2013 Turkey Demographic and Health Surveys (TDHS), the findings reveal that women with some college or college education marry significantly later than those with less education. More importantly, husband's educational attainment has positive associations with women's age at first marriage if women are also equally and highly educated. Attitudes toward gender equality also play an important role in marriage behavior. Women who do not perceive domestic violence as legitimate and those who are more supportive of gender equality tend to marry moderately but significantly later than others. The findings of the article indicate that in a context of increase in women's access to higher education, educational attainment of both women and men is the primary determinant of family formation processes in Turkey. In addition to logistical factors that late graduation leads to later marriages, the article also claims that higher educated women's expectations from marriage would transform accordingly. These findings also implicate that for women with some college or college education the marriage markets would shift to university campuses.

Work-family trajectories and health: A systematic review.

Work and family lives interact in complex ways across individuals' life courses. In the past decade, many studies constructed work-family trajectories, some also examined the relation with health. The aims of this systematic review were to summarise the evidence from studies constructing work-family trajectories, and to synthesise the evidence on the association between work-family trajectories and health. We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, SocINDEX and Web of Science databases. Key search terms related to work, family and trajectories. Studies that built combined work-family trajectories or examined the relationship between work and family trajectories were included. Risk of bias was assessed independently by two authors. The identified work-family trajectories were summarised and presented for men and women, age cohorts and contexts. The evidence on the association with health as antecedent or consequence was synthesised. Forty-eight studies, based on 29 unique data sources, were included. Thirty-two studies (67%) were published in 2015 or later, and sequence analysis was the primary analytic technique used to construct the trajectories (n=43, 90%). Trajectories of women were found to be more diverse and complex in comparison with men. Work-family trajectories differed by age cohorts and contexts. Twenty-three studies (48%) examined the association between work-family trajectories and health and most of these studies found significant associations. The results indicate that work-family trajectories characterised by an early transition to parenthood, single parenthood, and weak ties to employment are associated with worse health outcomes. Work-family trajectories differed greatly between men and women, but differences seemed to decrease in the youngest cohorts. Given the current changes in labour markets and family formation processes, it is important to investigate the work and family lives of younger cohorts. Work-family trajectories were associated with health at different life stages. Future research should examine longitudinal associations of work-family trajectories with health and focus on elucidating why and under which circumstances some trajectories are associated with better or worse health compared with other trajectories.

Love during China’s Cultural Revolution: evidence from a ‘sent-down’ couple’s private letters 1968–1977

ABSTRACT This paper reveals how love and marriage were interpreted, negotiated and maintained by a young couple during the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), by analyzing 200 love letters. It first introduces the letter authors, their experiences of being ‘sent-down’ to work at separate state-owned farms, and the comrade-style love they developed by following the Mao-era injunction to prioritize revolutionary politics over personal matters. It then shows how class struggle politics and associated political thought movements inhibited youth dating and romance. Many young adults had to choose between personal matters and political revolution, which led to the paradoxical existence of expressions of ‘self-restraint’ and ‘self-indulgence’ in sexual affairs. After China’s universities reopened in 1970, the couple pursued tertiary education and put their romance on hold. This period was accompanied by a weakening tie between ‘personal matters’ (love) and political revolution and a rising tension between personal matters and personal development (education and career). With China’s abandonment of the ‘send-down’ policy in 1978, the couple returned to Harbin, the capital city of Heilongjiang province in northeast China. They married after a decade of separation and correspondence about their tumultuous experiences. Analyzing their letters demonstrates the impact of Mao-era policies, ideas and practices in shaping love and family formation processes for the sent-down generation.

Family Policy Awareness and Marital Intentions: A National Survey Experimental Study

Despite extensively examining the effects of family policies on marriage and fertility rates, previous research has paid little attention to the process of policy implementation and has implicitly assumed that individuals are fully aware of the policy information when making marital and fertility decisions. Challenging this assumption, we theorize policy awareness as an important mechanism for understanding the potential influence of family policies on individuals' marital intentions, an understudied yet crucial determinant of family formation behavior. In an experiment using a national survey of young unmarried individuals in Japan, respondents were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. The treatment group was informed about 17 Japanese family policy benefits, but most of the respondents knew none or only a few of these benefits. After exposure to the policy information, the treatment group had significantly higher marital intentions than the control group, which had similar baseline characteristics but no information exposure. Crucially, such positive effects were particularly pronounced among high-educated women and high- and low-educated men, reflecting the differentiated effects of policy awareness under Japan's traditional gender role norms. Overall, these findings highlight the pivotal role of policy awareness during the family formation process and contribute to the debate over whether and how family policies may influence different subpopulations.

Enhancing Counselor Competency during Female Partner Family Formation

ABSTRACT The process of family formation for female partners is unique. Little research, outside of the nursing literature, has been conducted to help counselors address the needs of female partners. In this qualitative study, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was utilized to (a) explore the experiences of female partners receiving third-party fertility treatments during family formation and (b) examine the role of counseling in the process. A total of six participants, three couples, participated in this study. Three themes emerged: family preparation, family issues, and counselor competency. Recommendations and directions for future research are discussed.

Marriage Intentions Among Cohabiters in Lithuania

Living together in one household without being married in modern society is one of the defining features characterizing the transformations of the modern family, mentioned alongside late-age marriage, late-age childbearing, or frequent divorces. Marriage is still a major life transformation, but the pressure to marry today is lighter than ever before and many young couples in Europe start family life from living together in one household and not being married. However, cohabitation has not a universal meaning and role in family formation process and couples cohabit for different reasons and motives. Existing research proves, that union formation pattern depends on socioeconomical and sociodemographic characteristics, it varies by country and changes by time.
 In the research literature, cohabitation diffusion process is mainly based on the two arguments: cultural value changes which leads to “less marriage” and economic restrains which leads to postponed marriage until economic stability.
 The aim of this article is to investigate the intentions of cohabitors to marry and the factors modelling these intentions in Lithuania. The empirical analysis is based on the current Family and Inequality Survey (2019) data set about 1970-1984 birth cohort who lived in an extramarital partnership at the time of the research. The data consists rich information on the partnership and fertility, but also social and economic standing. Analysis of the data shows that, most of the cohabiting individuals in the analyzed cohort in Lithuania still undecided about marriage and could not name their intentions in the future. Descriptive statistics suggests that more man than women plan to marry their partner in the future. In addition, cohabitors with the lowest education level do not intend to marry their partner more than any another education level group.
 The multinomial regression results suggest that factors predicting marriage in the future are sex, partnership satisfaction and education. That leads to assume that in Lithuania cohabitation is only a prelude to marriage and individuals satisfied with the quality of their relationship intends to marry rather than continuing cohabitation as an alternative to marriage. Cohabitation can be chosen as a prelude to marriage to check the strength of a relationship and to accumulate economic and social resources. On another hand, having one child has a negative effect on the marriage intentions among cohabitors.

SOME PROBLEMS OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF THE FAMILY OF THE MODERN SOCIETY

Marriage and the family are important institutions of human society. As we know, they include different private institutions: the institute of kinship, the institute of motherhood and fatherhood, the institute of property, the institute of social protection of childhood and guardianship, and others. The process of family formation is the process of assimilation of social norms, roles and standards that regulate courtship, the choice of a marriage partner, family stabilization, sexual behavior, relations with the parents of spouses.The sociology of the family in a narrow sense, as part of general sociology, as a theory of the “middle level”; considers a special sphere of life and culture of families. The sociology of the family deals with a group, and not with an individual subject of life activity. A group of people connected by family and kinship relations forms that part of the social reality that is studied by the sociology of the family, where the family lifestyle is at the forefront. The sociology of the family considers the individual as a member of the family, integral part of the society. The sociology of the family correlates with the sociology of the individual; it studies personality, first of all, through the prism of socio-cultural intra-family ties, family identity of the individual. In any societythe family has a dual character. On the one hand, it is a social institution, on the other-a small group that has its own laws of functioning and development.

“Does Everybody Want the Hollywood Fairytale?” Same-Sex Couples Hinting at the Second Demographic Transition in Brazil

This article examines same-sex couples as a sign of the Second Demographic Transition, investigating how gay and lesbian couples living together in Brasília build their family, whether they intend to have children, and what challenges they face. We conducted semi-structured interviews online to investigate the family formation process and parenting intentions of 42 couples living together in Brasília in 2019, 20 lesbian and 22 gay couples. The organizing themes in the interviews were marriage, children, work, and stigma. This study advances existing scholarship on families by articulating points of connection between the legal institution of same-sex marriage in Brazil, changing social norms regarding family life, and parental gender expectations as signs of the Second Demographic Transition. Studying same-sex couples contribute to a more complex understanding of the family, the gendered division of labor, and the dimension of fertility and parenting intentions.

The types of fertility patterns in Europe

The aim of this paper is to present the types of fertility patterns that characterise European countries and their NUTS-1 units in the early 21st c. and in the near future. The types of fertility patterns were defined by ordering six five-year age groups of women aged from 15 to 44 years, according to the groups’ fertility rates (from the highest to the lowest). The analysis resulted in the creation of 14 different types of fertility patterns. Countries located in the same European region tend to have the same or similar type of fertility pattern. In most European countries, the postponement transition can be observed, and it will probably continue in the future.
 Differences between the fertility rates of the age groups were assessed within countries and between countries with the same type of fertility pattern by calculating the so-called fertility rate ratios. The paper also provides an overview of the main theories and concepts explaining the course of family formation processes in Europe and indicates factors that shape fertility patterns in European countries today.

Relasi Gender Pada Perkawinan Antar Etnis: Studi Kasus Perempuan Minangkabau

Gender relations on inter-ethnic marriage (Minangkabau Women's Case Study). Inter-ethnic marriage in Indonesia is a strategy in strengthening the integration of the nation in the modern era. Minangkabau as one of the big ethnicities is included on thissocial facts. One of the driving factors is merantau tradition. The culture of merantau allows Minangkabau people then interacts with various ethnicities and nations. Meanwhile, women in Minangkabau have a special role because they adhere to the matrilineal kinship system. They can carry out marriage with ethnicity and other tribes outside Minangkabau and maintain their traces at the same time. This cultural factor strengthens marriage patterns and affects the family formation process. The attitude of women in inter-ethnic marriage relations also plays a role in solving problems in the family. This paper discusses how Minangkabau women's strategy in inter-ethnic marriage relations in Indonesia? What factors affect Minangkabau women in choosing a partner who comes from outside the tribe? The research method used is qualitative by using the framework of the theory of feminism on the freedom and separation of the realm of Public and Private. Research uses Minangkabau women's samples who carry out marriage with the Batak, Java and Sundanese tribes that have been going on for more than ten years. The results of the study found that Minangkabau women could play an active and independent role in inter-ethnic marriage bonds. This attitude is in line with the views of feminism who emphasize freedom in choosing and acting, and the absence of separation between public and private spaces .