Intergenerational Transmission of Childbearing across Partnerships

Trude Lappegård, Statistics Norway
Elizabeth Thomson, Stockholm University and University of Wisconsin-Madison

The aim of this paper is to study intergenerational transmission of childbearing across partnership. We explore a hypothesis that this transmission is mediated by parents divorce, which might turn up in the composition of the half-siblings. Using unique data allowing for detailed information from administrative registers we explore whether men and women with half-siblings are more inclined to have children with more than one partner. We compare Norway and Sweden in order to investigate the influence of social context of intergenerational transmission. Using data from 1970-2010 we get insight into whether the intergenerational transmission have changed over time. Preliminary results indicate that those having experienced the divorce of their parents and experienced parents having children with another partner (having younger half-siblings) are more likely to have children with more than one partner. There also seems to be a stronger intergenerational transmission between mothers and daughters and between fathers and sons.