Parental Education and Family Dissolution: A Cross‐National and Cohort Comparison

Abstract

This is the first study to systematically analyze whether the association between parental education and family dissolution varies cross‐nationally and over time. The authors use meta‐analytic tools to study cross‐national variation between 17 countries with data from the Generations and Gender Study and Harmonized Histories. The association shows considerable cross‐national variation, but is positive in most countries. The association between parental education and family dissolution has become less positive or even negative in six countries. The findings show that the association between parental education and family dissolution is generally positive or nil, even if the association between own education and family dissolution is in many countries increasingly negative. The authors find suggestive evidence that the association is related to the crude divorce rate, but not to the generosity of the welfare state in these countries. The implications of these findings for understanding the stratification in family dissolution are discussed.

Cross-National Variation in the Link Between Parental Socio-Economic Status and Union Formation and Dissolution Processes

“…Also, in this study, meta-analytical tools were used to first analyze whether there is cross-national variation and if so, whether this cross-national variation can be explained by a country-level indicator. Brons and Härkönen (2018), first of all, show that already with regard to the prevalence of union dissolution, large country differences are found. The percentage of people that dissolved their childbearing union was highest in Estonia (29.8%) and Russia (28.9%), while in Georgia, Italy and Bulgaria, this percentage was below 10% (see Brons and Härkönen 2018 for percentages for all the countries).…”

“…However, only a few studies analyzed the link between parental SES and the risk to dissolve a union and these studies were all conducted in single countries. Therefore, Brons and Härkönen (2018) focused on the link between parental SES and union dissolution, or more specifically, the risk to dissolve a childbearing union in 17 different European countries using data from the first wave of the GGP. Parental SES was measured by parental education.…”

“…Figure 2.5 shows the results of a meta-analysis in which for 17 European countries the net effect of parental education on union dissolution was estimated (Brons and Härkönen 2018). The dotted line shows that overall, the higher the educational level of parents, the higher the risk to dissolve a childbearing union (OR = 1.12, p < .01).…”

Meta-Analysis and Meta-Regression: An Alternative to Multilevel Analysis When the Number of Countries Is Small

“…6.2 encounter difficulties in explicitly modeling country-level effects and cross-level interactions, our method is capable to comprehensively do so. Additional examples of this approach can be found in other publications within the Context of Opportunities (CONOPP) project (see Brons and Harkonen 2018;Brons et al 2017;Koops 2020;Zoutewelle-Terovan and Liefbroer 2018). Third, whereas our discussion and examples focus on modeling one random slope, multiple random slopes (e.g.…”

Overcrowded Housing and Relationship Break-up

“…These factors are not only related to the intergenerational transmission of home ownership but also play a role in explaining separation (be it sometimes positively instead of negatively (the remaining effect of home ownership on breaking up that has been found in this paper is negative). More economic parental resources (that go together with more home ownership) are assumed to be related to break-up, either positively (parents can help in costly divorce) or negatively (parents financial support reduces financial stress of the couple) (Brons and Härkönen 2018); living close to parents [which increases the likelihood of intergenerational transmission of home ownership, e.g. due to housing market similarities (Mulder et al 2015)] can imply a tighter social network with more social pressure to stay together (Högnäs and Carlson 2010); and higher parental SES couples are found to be more likely to break up, at least in the Netherlands (De Graaf and Kalmijn 2006).…”