Step-families and Childbearing Desires in Europe

The New Roles of Men and Women and Implications for Families and Societies

“…On the one hand, it can reduce fertility as the time people spend in couple relationships shortens, and as women and men may choose to have fewer children because of the prospect of either having to raise their children alone or not being able to be involved with the children because of separation or divorce (Lillard and Waite 1993). On the other hand, high rates of family dissolution can raise fertility rates as second and higher-order partnerships are increasingly formed during the reproductive ages, and couples may opt for joint offspring even if they already have children from previous relationships (Thomson 2004). In any case, the high and/or rising instability of partnerships contributes to the increasing diversity of family biographies in Europe.…”

Social policies, separation, and second birth spacing in Western Europe

“…1 999) , as w e ll as w o rk do ne f ro m a comparative perspective (see, e.g., Henz and Thomson 2005;Thomson 2004;Vikat et al 2004), that has addressed the fertility behavior of stepfamilies. In this type of research, stepfamilies are commonly defined as a family formed by a man and a woman who live in a coresidential union with a child or with children where at least one of the partners has children from a prior partnership.…”

“…Our study relates to the large body of demographic literature that deals with the fertility behavior of stepfamilies in individual countries (Beaujouan and Wiles-Portier 2011;Heintz-Martin, Le Bourdais, and Hamplová 2014;Henz 2002;Holland and Thomson 2011;Meggiolaro and Ongaro 2010;Vikat, Thomson, and Hoem 1999) and in a crossnational context (see, e.g., Henz and Thomson 2005;Thomson 2004;Vikat, Thomson, and Prskawetz 2004). It is also linked to research that has investigated multipartnered fertility -that is, the question of whether men and women have children with different partners across their life courses (Carlson and Furstenberg 2006;Furstenberg 2007a, 2007b;Manlove et al 2008;Scott et al 2013; Thomson et al2014).…”

Las parejas reconstituidas en España: un fenómeno emergente con perfiles heterogéneos

“…While some studies suggest that having non-common children reduces the likelihood of having a common child (Vikat et al, 2004), particularly if the woman already has two or more children (Thomson et al, 2014), other studies find that the presence (or not) of previous children has no effect on step family fertility (Anderson, 2000). What seems to be irrefutable is that a common child holds great value for the step family (Thomson, 2004), as it underpins its structural integrity (Juby et al, 2001) and creates a strong bond between the parents (Heintz- Martin et al, 2014). 2) To describe the characteristics of reconconstituted nuclei, taking as reference biparental nuclei.…”

“…Mientras algunos estudios apuntan a que la presencia de hijos no comunes a la pareja reduce el riesgo de tener un hijo común (Vikat et al, 2004), especialmente si la mujer tiene dos hijos o más (Thomson et al, 2014), otros afi rman que la presencia de estos no tiene efecto alguno (Anderson, 2000). Lo que parece irrefutable es que el hijo común tiene un gran valor para la familia (Thomson, 2004), afi anzando la solidez estructural de la misma (Juby et al, 2001) y creando un compromiso entre los padres (Heintz-Martin et al, 2014).…”