Differences in partnership and marital status at first birth by women’s and their partners’ education: evidence from Britain 1991–2012
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Date
2018-03-19Author
Peri-Rotem, N
Scott, J
Date issued
2018-03-19
Journal
Vienna Yearbook of Population Research
Type
Article
Language
en
Publisher
Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
Rights
Open access
Abstract
Non-marital childbearing, especially within cohabitation, has become increasingly
common in Britain, as in other Western countries. Nonetheless, births outside of
marriage occur more frequently among individuals who are relatively disadvantaged
in terms of income potential. Building upon previous research in family formation
patterns, we examine differences by education and employment status in the
proportion of marital and non-marital first births among British women and
couples over the past two decades. In particular, we explore trends in educational
differences in non-marital first births among women, and the relationship between
the partners’ joint educational attainment and childbearing within cohabitation or
within marriage. We find that there has been a steady increase in the share of
first births to cohabiting couples of all educational groups, but that there has been
no significant change in the share of births to unpartnered women. Overall, our
results show that the differences by educational attainment in the likelihood of
having a non-marital first birth did not increase significantly during the observed
period. The findings also indicate that among cohabiting couples, the male partner’s
education was negatively associated with childbearing, but that this relationship
varied according to the woman’s educational attainment.
Funders/Sponsor
This study was supported by the Philomathia Social Sciences Research Programme
at the University of Cambridge.
Description
This is the final version of the article. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.
Citation
Vol. 15, pp. 1 - 32
ISSN
1728-4414
ISBN
978-3-7001-8152-1