Most research on trends in socio-economic fertility differences has focused on cohort total fertility and on women. This study aimed to analyse how cohort trends in parity-specific fertility differ across educational segments for men and women and what role multi-partner fertility plays in these trends. We used Finnish and Swedish register data on cohorts born in 1940-73/78. The main analyses used parity progression ratios, comparing ordinary ratios with similar ratios using births to first reproductive partners only. Among the low and medium educated, we observe strengthening parity polarization across cohorts, with increases in both childlessness and births of order three or higher, the latter largely reflecting increases in multi-partner fertility. Highly educated men and women more often have exactly two children. We demonstrate that cohort total fertility can mask significant parity-specific trends across educational groups and that changes in multi-partner fertility can play a part in cohort trends in socio-economic fertility differentials.

The present study investigates the impact of union formation, parenthood and union dissolution on Swedes’ attitudes toward divorce. The results, based on fixed-effects models of longitudinal data from the Young Adult Panel Study (YAPS), suggest a prevalent, albeit small, influence of family life-course events on attitudes toward divorce in Sweden. Attitudes toward divorce are studied using two survey statements: ‘It is too easy to get divorced in today’s Sweden’ (item A) and ‘Parents should stay together for the sake of their children’ (item B). For both items, union dissolution from parental relationships is associated with a decrease in intolerance toward divorce, but only for women. For men, but not for women, parental union formation increases intolerance toward divorce as measured by item B. The results are discussed in relation to the literature on gendered family life-course experiences.

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