Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-wp2c8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-19T18:41:16.287Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Fertility, birth timing and marital breakdown: a reinterpretation of the evidence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

M. J. Murphy
M. J. Murphy
Affiliation:
London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

The conventional view that childlessness was associated with higher than average risk of marital breakdown was questioned by Chester (1972) and Gibson (1980) on the basis of analysis of divorce records. Data from the 1980 General Household Survey are used to show that childless couples, and those who have children early in marriage (and are thus more likely to have large families) are considerably more at risk of breakdown at all marriage durations than delayed two-child families. The reasons for the different conclusions of these three studies are assessed and it is concluded that standardization has many unattractive features for demographic analysis (especially in areas other than mortality), and that presentations based on relative or absolute risk of breakdown allow the key features to be assessed most satisfactorily.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 16 , Issue 4 , October 1984 , pp. 487 - 500
Copyright
Copyright © 1984, Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Chester, R. (1972) Is there a relationship between childlessness and marriage breakdown? J. biosoc. Sci. 4, 443.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cox, D.R. (1972) Regression models and life tables. J. Roy. statist. Soc. Ser.B, 33, 187.Google Scholar
Elandt-Johnson, R.C. & Johnson, N.L. (1980) Survival Models and Data Analysis. Wiley, New York.Google Scholar
Farid, S. (1974) The Current Tempo of Fertility in England and Wales. OPCS Studies on Medical and Population Subjects No. 27. HM Stationery Office, London.Google Scholar
General Register Office (1963) The Registrar General's Statistical Review of England and Wales for the Year 1961, Part II, Population. HM Stationery Office, London.Google Scholar
Gibson, C. (1980) Childlessness and marital instability: a re-examination of the evidence. J. biosoc. Sci. 12, 121.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Juarez-Carcano, F. (1983) Family Formation in Mexico: a Study based on Maternity Histories from a Retrospective Fertility Survey. PhD thesis. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.Google Scholar
Leete, R. (1979) New Directions in Family Life. Population Trends 15. HM Stationery Office, London.Google Scholar
Little, R. (1980) Linear Modelling of WFS Data. World Fertility Survey Technical Bulletin 9. World Fertility Survey, London.Google Scholar
Menken, J., Trussell, J., Stempel, D. & Babakol, O. (1981) Proportional hazards life table models: an illustrative analysis of socio-demographic influences in marital dissolution in the US. Demography, 18, 181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (1982) General Household Survey 1980. HM Stationery Office, London.Google Scholar
Pullum, T.W. (1978) Standardization. World Fertility Survey Technical Bulletin 3. World Fertility Survey, London.Google Scholar
Thornes, B. & Collard, J. (1979) Who Divorces? Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.Google Scholar
Werner, B. (1982) Recent Trends in Illegitimate Births and Extramarital Conceptions. Population Trends 30. HM Stationery Office, London.Google Scholar