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Post-divorce family trajectories of men and women in Flanders

Author

Listed:
  • Sofie Vanassche

    (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)

  • Martine Corijn

    (Studiedienst van de Vlaamse Regering)

  • Koen Matthijs

    (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)

Abstract

Background: Most studies investigating family life after a separation or divorce focus on single or competing events or transitions. Despite the growing popularity of the life-course perspective, few studies have given an overview of the sequence and timing of various post-divorce partner and parenthood trajectories. Objective: In this study we apply the technique of sequence analysis to describe the complete post-divorce partner and parenthood trajectory of divorced men and women in the first seven years following residential separation from their spouses. Methods: We use data from Divorce in Flanders, based upon a representative sample of first marriages drawn from the National Register. Our research sample consists of 1,530 men and 1,762 women who had been divorced for at least seven years at the time of interview. Ward’s method is used as a clustering method. Results: A large proportion of divorced men and women remain single or outside a union, and make no partner or parenthood transition at all. However, we identified eight patterns of post-divorce partner trajectory and eight patterns of post-divorce parenthood trajectory. These trajectories differ from each other in the occurrence, the order, and the timing of specific partner and parenthood transitions. Conclusions: Our results do not suggest complete de-standardization of the post-divorce family trajectories of men and women, but do suggest a substantial heterogeneity in post-divorce family life. This heterogeneity is often ignored or hidden by focusing on single events or family transitions.

Suggested Citation

  • Sofie Vanassche & Martine Corijn & Koen Matthijs, 2015. "Post-divorce family trajectories of men and women in Flanders," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 32(31), pages 859-872.
    • Handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:32:y:2015:i:31
    DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2015.32.31
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Julie Jefferies & Ann Berrington & Ian Diamond, 2000. "Childbearing Following Marital Dissolution in Britain," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 16(3), pages 193-210, September.
    2. Gabadinho, Alexis & Ritschard, Gilbert & Müller, Nicolas S & Studer, Matthias, 2011. "Analyzing and Visualizing State Sequences in R with TraMineR," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 40(i04).
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    Cited by:

    1. Christine Schnor & Jan Van Bavel & Sofie Vanassche, 2017. "Stepfather or biological father? Education-specific pathways of postdivorce fatherhood," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 37(51), pages 1659-1694.
    2. Inge Pasteels & Dimitri Mortelmans, 2017. "The socioeconomic determinants of repartnering after divorce or separation in Belgium," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 36(58), pages 1785-1812.

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    JEL classification:

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

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