Higher Order Unions Research Articles

Re-partnering and fertility

Abstract European divorce rates have been rising since the 1970s. Concurrently, as more couples choose cohabitation over marriage, there has also been an increase in separations among cohabiting partners. Nearly 50% of separated individuals form new relationships within five years. These trends may have important implications for fertility research. Are re-partnered women more likely to continue having children than women who have never separated? Do re-partnered women approach fertility decisions differently? Does re-partnering help recover the births 'lost' due to separation? To address these questions, we utilise longitudinal data from 2004 to 2018 across 32 European countries, employing probit models for our analysis. We find that women in higher-order unions are, on average, more likely to have an additional child compared to those who already have children with their current partner. The former group appears less burdened by having more or older children and is less influenced by family income. Predictions from our models indicate that births lost due to union dissolution can only be recovered when re-partnering occurs relatively quickly.

The Role of Gender Differences in Partnering and Re-partnering for Gender Differences in Completed Fertility

Individuals increasingly enter a series of relationships during their reproductive years. As births in higher-order unions increase, fertility becomes partially contingent on re-partnering. Previous research suggests that men re-partner at higher rates than women. This study analyzes whether gender differences in partnering and re-partnering influence gender differences in cohort fertility. We use Finnish register data on all births, marriages, and cohabitations between the ages of 18 and 47 over four full birth cohorts. The gender differences in cohort fertility rate are decomposed into components due to birth rate differences and a compositional component owing to gender differences in the share partnered and re-partnered. We observe no impact of “re-partnering premium” on male fertility. Men have marginally higher re-partnering rates at older ages, when birth rates are low, whereas women have higher rates of partnering and re-partnering at prime childbearing ages. This compositional effect drives a “partnering” advantage for female fertility. This connection between gender differences in partnering and cohort fertility is true across educational levels.

Less Is More? Repartnering and Completed Cohort Fertility in Finland.

An extensive literature theorizes the role of repartnering for cohort fertility and whether union dissolution can be an engine for fertility. A large share of higher order unions are nonmarital cohabitations, but most previous studies on completed cohort fertility have analyzed only marital unions, and none have incorporated nonmarital cohabitations using population-level data. To analyze the relationship between the number of unions and cohort fertility for men and women, we use Poisson regression with Finnish register data to enumerate every birth, marriage, and cohabitation among the 1969-1972 birth cohorts at ages 18-46. We show that dissolutions of first cohabitations are the main pathway to repartnering and that most higher order unions are cohabitations. Nonmarital repartnering is a strong predictor of low fertility. In contrast, remarriage is positively associated with cohort fertility. Because the bulk of first-union dissolutions and higher order unions are nonmarital, repartnering is not an efficient engine for fertility at the aggregate level. Marriage and cohabitation are far from indistinguishable in a country often described as a second demographic transition forerunner.

"Thank U, Next"? Repartnering and the Household Division of Labor.

Drawing on life course and gender theories, this study tests competing hypotheses about the effect of repartnering on women's and men's levels and shares of housework. Amidst increasing cohabitation rates and union instability, women and men are likely to form and dissolve multiple marital and non-marital unions with different partners over the life course. However, most of our knowledge about the role of past relationships are based on cross-sectional studies comparing first- and higher-order union. This study investigates whether people change their housework arrangements upon repartnering and whether women and men experience similar patterns of change in heterosexual relationships. The analysis draws on 40 years of longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and a sample of 1,897 women and men who were observed in two sequential heterosexual unions. The author used fixed-effects models to estimate change in housework behavior upon repartnering. Overall, the results show stability in housework behavior upon repartnering once controlling for other life course changes that concur with repartnering. Women continued doing the majority of housework upon repartnering. The results suggest that forming a new heterosexual union evokes gender scripts which overall maintains the gendered housework behavior. Although housework is dynamic over the life course, the gender dynamics that shape housework is stable amid union instability.

Childbearing After Repartnering Among Russians, Russians Migrants and Estonians: Prevalence and Determinants

The collapse of the USSR and structural changes in society gave rise to family and marriage transformations in Russia and other post-Soviet countries of Eastern Europe. Estonia is among the examples of rapid marriage transformation and the spread of cohabitations and extramarital births. At the same time, throughout the post-war era Estonia accepted Russian migrants. Studies show that the adaptation of the Russian population in Estonia proceeds slowly, and that patterns of matrimonial behavior among the Russian migrants and their descendants in Estonia are closer to patterns of ethnic Russians in Russia. In this study, the Generation and Gender Survey data for Russia (2004) and Estonia (2005) were used to analyze the prevalence of first and second childbirths in first and higher-order unions and the determinants of fertility after repartnering among the Russian and Estonian populations in Estonia and Russians in Russia. We consider the impact of partners’ age and parenthood status at the beginning of higher-order unions, as well as social variables (e.g. education, type of settlement and ethnicity). The results show that the contribution of higher-order unions to total fertility increased significantly in all studied populations. However, first childbirths in high-order unions are rare among both the Russians and the Estonians, second births after repartnering are more widespread among Russians in Russia. Divorces and separations significantly increase the interval between first and second births, but there is no difference in time interval duration between the three considered population groups. The determinants of childbearing among Russians in Russia and Estonia in higher-order unions are very similar: they are the age of women, the type of habitation and the initial nature of the union. The effect of the parenthood status and marriage cohort is individual for each population group: in Russia, if a male partner has no child(ren) from previous relationships, the couple has a higher chance of having a mutual child. The probability of childbearing after repartnering significantly increased in 1990-1999 in Estonia.

The socioeconomic determinants of repartnering after divorce or separation in Belgium

Background: The increasing prevalence of higher-order unions is one of the major changes in family life in recent decades.

Consensual Union in West Africa

One of the major changes in family formation is the increasing tendency for people to enter into co-resident patterning without formalising the union through religious, civil or traditional rites. Despite the implications, this nuptiality behavior which is well documented in the more developed regions, has received negligible scholarly attention in Africa. Using three ranks of DHS surveys (1998-2014) in twelve countries, this study examined the levels, trends, individual and contextual factors associated with consensual union in West Africa. Descriptive results showed a rising trend in consensual union in the sub-region. Multilevel logistic regression analysis suggests that individual-level factors associated with consensual union included education, spousal age gap, second and higher order union, premarital birth, age at first sex, number of sons among others. Contextual predictors were community poverty level, proportion of educated women and proportion of divorced and separated women. Given the health and welfare implications of consensual union, the findings underscore the need for policies and programmatic interventions to protect women in consensual unions, and to extend the benefits of formal marriage to consensual union in case of break up.

Effects of personality on postdivorce partnership trajectories

Personality is known to be a key predictor for several aspects of close relationship functioning. Most likely, the influence of this psychological factor is even growing in contemporary societies, where the individual life biography is increasingly the result of personal preferences and less influenced by normative expectations and cultural institutions. In an era of high relationship instability, more and more people engage in a second union. Although it becomes increasingly relevant to study the effects of personality on close relationship functioning in higher order unions, this remained understudied until now. This study examines the impact of personality on partnership trajectories following divorce. First, we construct a typology of eight partnership trajectories, capturing the occurrence, order, and timing of different partnership events (e.g., repartnering, cohabiting, getting married) in the first 7 years after separation. Then, we use multinomial logistic regression to examine the association between personality and the post-separation partnership trajectories, thereby controlling for sociodemographic variables. The analyses are based on data from a large-scale representative survey, the Divorce in Flanders Survey. Results show that personality and sociodemographic factors are both important determinants for explaining post-separation partnership trajectories. Extraversion tends to increase the likelihood and speed of repartnering. Neuroticism lowers the stability in partnerships. Conscientiousness is related with a higher likelihood to remarry. A higher age at separation and the presence of children at home decrease the likelihood to repartner, while education increases this. The present study delivers an important contribution for unraveling part of the complex association between personality and partner relationship dynamics.

Shifts in Higher-Order Unions and Stepfamilies Among Currently Cohabiting and Married Women of Childbearing Age

Shifts in union formation and childbearing have undoubtedly altered the prevalence and structure of higher-order unions and stepfamilies, but no study has examined trends over time. Comparing the 1988 and 2011-2013 cycles of the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), I produce estimates of repartnering and stepfamily formation among currently partnered women aged 15-44. The percentage of intact unions that are remarriages stayed stable (around 27-28%), but a growing proportion of currently married and cohabiting women had another cohabiting partner in the past. The percentage of intact unions that are stepfamilies increased from 24% to 31%, with an increase in cohabiting stepfamilies from 19% to 39% of all stepfamilies. Further, while the majority of remarriages are stepfamilies, the majority of women's stepfamilies are no longer remarriages due to union formation among never-married parents. Cohabiting (but not marital) stepfamilies also exhibited changes in which partner had children and in shared childbearing.

Repartnering and Childbearing After Divorce: Differences According to Parental Status and Custodial Arrangements

We use a stepfamily formation perspective to study two dimensions of the family life course following the dissolution of a first marriage. First, we examine how the presence of children from a prior union and the custody arrangements of those children influence the process of repartnering. In doing so, we extend the traditional explanations of union formation in terms of needs, attractiveness, and opportunities by taking into account the parental status of the new partners and a detailed classification of the custody arrangement of the children. Next, we investigate the likelihood of childbearing within those post-separation unions with a particular emphasis on the prior parental status of both partners. By studying post-separation union formation and fertility behavior together, we get a more complete depiction of stepfamily formation especially in their more complex forms. Our analyses are based on survey data for 2077 divorced men and 2384 divorced women collected in the Divorce in Flanders study. The results show that compared with other divorcees, full-time residential parents are the least likely to start a new union following separation and that parents are more likely to start a union with another parent than with a childless partner. Several of our results suggest that parenthood may not be a particularly attractive status on the partner market. Potential partners without children themselves appear especially reluctant to assume a (residential) step parental role. In contrast with the results for union formation, it is not the custody arrangement of the child(ren) but parental status itself that predicts childbearing within higher order unions. Our findings are important from a policy perspective as they stress the consequences of gender-neutral childrearing patterns following divorce for the repartnering of women after separation.

Union Type and Depressive Symptoms Among Mexican Adults.

Diversity in union type is increasing around the world as cohabitation and higher order unions become more prevalent in developing and developed countries. This necessitates a more nuanced understanding of how different union types relate to individual well-being across social settings. In this study, the authors analyze nationally-representative data from Mexico in cross-sectional and change models to evaluate differences in depressive symptoms across union type (marital vs. cohabiting and first vs. higher order unions) among Mexican men and women. The findings suggest that cohabiting unions do not provide the same mental health benefits as marital unions (especially for men). Repartnering is also associated with higher depressive symptoms (especially for women), which indicates possible lasting mental health disadvantages of divorce/separation or entrance into lower quality second unions. These results suggest that the changing family context in Mexico, which includes increasing cohabitation and union instability, may have important consequences for individuals' psychological well-being.

Dissolution risks in first and higher order marital and cohabiting unions

More and more people enter multiple unions during their lives, and then they may choose to either cohabit or marry. We examine the implications of this diversity in partnership trajectories by assessing dissolution risks in first and higher order marital and cohabiting unions. We use recent Norwegian survey data that contain complete retrospective union histories. We find that, when selectivity is accounted for, higher-order unions are not less stable than first unions. When dissolution risks for all possible partnership trajectories are compared, we find that former cohabitants who cohabit in a second union are as likely to break up as they were in their first cohabiting union. As soon as they enter marriage in their second unions, however, they do slightly better than first married persons. The previously married experience higher dissolution risks in their second union compared to their first, regardless of their current union type.

Transition to Motherhood and Relationship Quality

Despite the fact that many women in remarriages give birth to their first child, studies on the transition to motherhood do not acknowledge the impact of higher-order unions and vice versa. Currently, it is unknown how the relationship functioning of women undergoing the transition to motherhood is influenced by the new couples' divorce or separation history. The aim of this study is to address this gap in the literature by examining the trajectory of 140 women, all expecting the birth of their first child, in function of the fact that they are, or not, in higher-order unions. Women completed, along with a demographic questionnaire, a measure of dyadic adjustment during the third trimester of their pregnancy and at six months postpartum. Results show that, as predicted, women whose partners are in higher-order unions experience a more important decline in relationship functioning following the birth of their first child than women whose partners are in first unions. These differences are largely independent of demographic variables differentiating higher-order unions from first unions, such as age of partners and length of relationship. The current study confirms that higher-order unions have the potential to be associated with relational difficulties even when no child was born from prior relationships.

STERILIZATION AND UNION INSTABILITY IN BRAZIL

Brazilian women rely on sterilization as the main source of birth control. Sterilization has been one of the causes of the steep decline in fertility in Brazil, at least since the second half of 1970. It is hypothesized that understanding couples' relationships might be key to explaining this high rate of female sterilizations. Possible reasons for the higher level of fertility among women in unstable unions than among women in stable ones could be the less effective use of contraceptive methods, or that women in unstable unions tend to use less effective or reversible contraceptive methods. In this paper discrete time modelling of the timing of sterilization according to union histories is presented. The analysis uses the calendar data of the 1996 Brazilian DHS. It is shown that women in second or higher order unions have a lower risk of sterilization. This result should be taken into account in the analysis of the determinants of female sterilization in Brazil.

Multicomponent Linchpin Couplings. Reaction of Dithiane Anions with Terminal Epoxides, Epichlorohydrin, and Vinyl Epoxides: Efficient, Rapid, and Stereocontrolled Assembly of Advanced Fragments for Complex Molecule Synthesis.

AbstractFor Abstract see ChemInform Abstract in Full Text.

Multicomponent linchpin couplings. Reaction of dithiane anions with terminal epoxides, epichlorohydrin, and vinyl epoxides: efficient, rapid, and stereocontrolled assembly of advanced fragments for complex molecule synthesis.

The development, application, and advantages of a one-flask multicomponent dithiane linchpin coupling protocol, over the more conventional stepwise addition of dithiane anions to electrophiles leading to the rapid, efficient, and stereocontrolled assembly of highly functionalized intermediates for complex molecule synthesis, are described. Competent electrophiles include terminal epoxides, epichlorohydrin, and vinyl epoxides. High chemoselectivity can be achieved with epichlorohydrin and vinyl epoxides. For vinyl epoxides, the steric nature of the dithiane anion is critical; sterically unencumbered dithiane anions afford S(N)2 adducts, whereas encumbered anions lead primarily to SN2' adducts. Mechanistic studies demonstrate that the SN2' process occurs via syn addition to the vinyl epoxide. Integration of the multicomponent tactic with epichlorohydrin and vinyl epoxides permits the higher-order union of four and five components.

Fertility in second unions in Austria

The simultaneity of decreasing fertility and changing family structures in many European countries has led to a growing interest in fertility behavior in its relation to different family structures. The growing prevalence of higher-order unions (and the consequences for parity progression arising therefrom) is one example of an ongoing change in fertility behavior. Childbearing is not restricted to a single union but may extend over several partnerships. Fertility behavior in higher-order unions is becoming more and more important for determining completed fertility. Motivated by the work of Vikat et al. 1999, the authors investigate fertility behavior in second unions in Austria, focusing on whether and how it is influenced by the number of pre-union children of either partner.

Chief Evolutionary Officers: The amazing business of famous human evolution

In the world of business, visionary leaders are creating a conscious renaissance. With growing success and surprising earnings, they are teaching humanity the meaning of the word “transformation.” The authors assert that this renaissance, this dawning and awakening of humanity, is the emerging era of evolution. In this era, a new human role is being called for, and the noun “evolutionary” will name those who seek to work with and for the natural order of evolution itself. The Theory of Transformative Growth states that everything that grows and evolves, including a business, does so in a multi‐stage process‐pattern consisting of Gathering, forming a sustainable physical being or idea; Repeating, making multiple likenesses of a new being, product, or idea; Sharing, the process of expanding by integrating differences and increasing relationships; and Transforming, creating a higher order union of increased potential.

The Impact of Fertility on Sexual Union Transitions in Jamaica: An Event History Analysis

The family system in Jamaica is extremely unstable with high rates of dissolution of sexual unions and high levels of fertility outside marriage. The 3 commonly recognized types of fertile sexual unions are visiting common-law and marriage. Of these visiting unions are most predominant overall as well as in every age group and marriage the least. By age 49 most Jamaican women have had 2 partners and have been involved in 3 unions. Empirical studies of the relationship between fertility and union stability in Jamaica have shown strong support for a positive association between the number of partners and/or unions and cumulative fertility. This study tests the hypothesis that fertility may stabilize a partnership by increasing the probability of a transition to a more stable form of sexual union. The study data were collected in interviews with a sample of women between the ages of 15 and 49 from the Jamaica Fertility Survey (1975-76) which was part of the World Fertility Survey Program. The 1st union of everyone in the sample was a visiting one and no one had children prior to the start of that 1st union. The main reason for limiting the analysis to this sample is that given the high frequency with which Jamaican women begin their union histories with the visit version it would be the appropriate starting point from which to study transition to more stable unions. The study findings show that for women whose 1st sexual union was a visiting one fertility operates in 2 opposing directions. While it significantly lowers the likelihood of a move into the stabler unions of common-law and marriage it also lowers a partnership turnover into single status or with a new partner. In other words fertility raises the stability of the existing visiting union. Further research aimed at analyzing transitions out of higher-order unions should be able to shed more light on the issue.