Childbearing Across Partnerships in Italy: Prevalence, Demographic Correlates, Social Gradient

Studies of childbearing across partnerships – or having children with more than one partner – have generally focused on countries with relatively high separation rates. We complement analyses for Italy using nationally-representative retrospective data and event-history techniques, and we offer three key findings. First, we detected a non-negligible share of childbearing across partnerships, although at substantially lower levels relative to other wealthy countries (5%). Second, multivariable analyses revealed an impressive similarity as for the demographic correlates found elsewhere. Finally, we showed that childbearing across partnerships was initiated by the ‘social vanguard’ of new family behaviours, but then diffused among the least well-off. Overall, this study adds to the growing literature on childbearing across partnerships by showing the phenomenon to be also demographically and sociologically relevant in countries with a limited diffusion of union dissolutions and strong family ties.