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The implications of marital instability for a woman’s fertility: Empirical evidence from Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Silvia Meggiolaro

    (Università degli Studi di Padova (UNIPD))

  • Fausta Ongaro

    (Università degli Studi di Padova (UNIPD))

Abstract

Using a sample of Italian women interviewed in 2003 in the survey “Family and Social Subject,” this paper investigates two issues: (1) how a woman’s family life-course (union status and parity/ages of children born in the first marriage) influences the risk of a post-dissolution birth among separated women; and (2) how the experience of a marital disruption affects a woman’s cumulated fertility. Given that in Italy marital instability is relatively recent and still barely socially accepted, our main assumption is that separated women engage in more prudent reproductive behaviour than their counterparts living in countries with a longer experience of the phenomenon. With respect to the first point, our results show that: (i) not only remarriage, but also cohabitation, are strongly associated with the likelihood of post-dissolution childbearing; (ii) significant differences in the risk of having a child following the dissolution of a marriage are present only between separated women with no children and separated women with children; thus, separated women with one child have the same probability of experiencing a post-dissolution birth as those with two or more children, and the age of children is irrelevant. With respect to the second point, we find that women who underwent a marital dissolution have lower fertility than those who remained continuously married, and that repartnering enables this group of women to recapture some—but not all—of the fertility lost with the dissolution of the first marriage.

Suggested Citation

  • Silvia Meggiolaro & Fausta Ongaro, 2010. "The implications of marital instability for a woman’s fertility: Empirical evidence from Italy," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 23(34), pages 963-996.
  • Handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:23:y:2010:i:34
    DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2010.23.34
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Michaela Kreyenfeld & Esther Geisler & Teresa Castro Martín & Tina Hannemann & Valerie Heintz-Martin & Marika Jalovaara & Hill Kulu & Silvia Meggiolaro & Dimitri Mortelmans & Inge Pasteels & Marta Sei, 2017. "Social policies, separation, and second birth spacing in Western Europe," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 37(37), pages 1245-1274.
    2. Elena Pirani & Daniele Vignoli, 2021. "Childbearing Across Partnerships in Italy: Prevalence, Demographic Correlates, Social Gradient," Econometrics Working Papers Archive 2021_15, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti".
    3. Janetta Nestorová Dická & Filip Lipták, 2024. "Regional fertility predictors based on socioeconomic determinants in Slovakia," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 41(3), pages 1-43, September.
    4. Jan Van Bavel & Mieke Jansen & Belinda Wijckmans, 2012. "Has Divorce Become a Pro-Natal Force in Europe at the Turn of the 21st Century?," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 31(5), pages 751-775, October.
    5. Ben Malinga John & Natalie Nitsche, 2022. "Dynamics of Union Dissolution in Sub‐Saharan Africa," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 48(4), pages 1163-1201, December.
    6. Linus Andersson, 2023. "The Role of Gender Differences in Partnering and Re-partnering for Gender Differences in Completed Fertility," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(2), pages 1-28, April.
    7. Elizabeth Thomson & Maria Winkler-Dworak & Martin Spielauer & Alexia Prskawetz, 2012. "Union Instability as an Engine of Fertility? A Microsimulation Model for France," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 49(1), pages 175-195, February.
    8. Ana Fostik & Mariana Fernández Soto & Fernando Ruiz-Vallejo & Daniel Ciganda, 2023. "Union Instability and Fertility: An International Perspective," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 39(1), pages 1-47, December.
    9. Mariana Fernández Soto & Benoît Laplante, 2020. "The effect of union dissolution on the fertility of women in Montevideo, Uruguay," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 43(4), pages 97-128.
    10. Benson John & Natalie Nitsche, 2022. "Marital life courses in sub-Saharan Africa: all cause union dissolution, its timing, and time spent outside marriage," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2022-017, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    11. Sofie Vanassche & Martine Corijn & Koen Matthijs & Gray Swicegood, 2015. "Repartnering and Childbearing After Divorce: Differences According to Parental Status and Custodial Arrangements," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 34(5), pages 761-784, October.
    12. Benson John & Natalie Nitsche, 2022. "Indirect estimation of the timing of first union dissolution with incomplete marriage histories," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2022-011, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    13. Maria Winkler-Dworak & Eva Beaujouan & Paola Di Giulio & Martin Spielauer, 2019. "Simulating Family Life Courses: An Application for Italy, Great Britain, and Scandinavia," VID Working Papers 1908, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna.
    14. Maria Winkler-Dworak & Eva Beaujouan & Paola Di Giulio & Martin Spielauer, 2021. "Simulating family life courses: An application for Italy, Great Britain, Norway, and Sweden," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 44(1), pages 1-48.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    fertility; Italy; life course analysis; marital instability;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

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