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We examine the joint consequences of the COVID‐19 pandemic for fertility and birth outcomes by drawing on full population administrative data from Spain. We find a surprising improvement in birth outcomes in November and to a less extent in December 2020 (eight to nine months after the first wave of the pandemic) compared with monthly trends in the 10 previous years (2010–2019). The improvement in birth outcomes was shortly followed by a decline in fertility, which concentrated on first births, births to women without a tertiary degree, and births to young and old mothers, respectively. These findings are consistent with the idea that the pandemic selectively affected conception, which showed up first as an improvement in birth outcomes due to the missing conceptions of frail‐children‐to‐be (preterm and low birth weight) and then as a lowered fertility rate due to the missing conception of at‐term children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to investigate if experiencing childhood trauma (emotional abuse, emotional neglect, physical abuse, physical neglect, or sexual abuse) or a greater total burden of childhood trauma increase the risk of fear of childbirth (FOC). This study included 2556 women living in Southwest Finland. Women were recruited during routine ultrasound visits at gestational week (gwk) 12. Experiencing childhood trauma was assessed in retrospect with the Trauma and Distress Scale (TADS) questionnaire completed at gwk 14. Information on the diagnosis of FOC (ICD-10 diagnosis O99.80) was obtained from the Finnish Medical Birth Register. Associations between childhood trauma (domains and total TADS score) and FOC were analyzed with logistic regression in unadjusted and adjusted models. Emotional abuse (aOR 1.25, 95% CI 1.10–1.42), emotional neglect (aOR 1.26, 95% CI 1.08–1.46), and a greater total burden of trauma (TADS total score) (aOR 1.06, 95% CI 1.02–1.10) increased the risk for FOC. We found no evidence for physical abuse (aOR 1.15, 95% CI 1.00–1.32), physical neglect (aOR 1.06, 95% CI 0.92–1.22), and sexual abuse (aOR 1.24, 95% CI 0.99–1.56) associating with FOC. Childhood emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and a greater total burden of childhood trauma increase the risk for FOC. However, the childhood traumatic events were inquired in retrospect, which could distort the events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many immigrant groups disproportionately experience unemployment and this disadvantage often extends to their children—the second generation. This paper contributes to this stream of research by studying unemployment dynamics of the ancestral population and second-generation immigrants in Sweden. In particular, we ask: does unemployment persistence differ between ancestral Swedes and 10 second-generation immigrant groups? We answer this question using correlated dynamic random-effects logit models to study the effect of past on current unemployment—also known as genuine state dependence. We use Swedish register data to follow individuals over their early working careers. The results indicate that although past unemployment has a similar relative effect on current unemployment across the ancestry groups, past unemployment increases the probability of current unemployment (absolute effect) more among second-generation Middle-Eastern, Turkish, and Southern European immigrants. Because of higher baseline levels of unemployment, the labour market consequences of similar relative effects are more pronounced among the second generation as compared to ancestral Swedes. The paper concludes by elaborating on the reasons behind these contrasting results while highlighting the importance of examining heterogeneous effects on both the relative and absolute scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study demonstrates how an evolving negative educational gradient of single parenthood can interact with changing labour market conditions to shape labour market inequalities between partnered and single parents. We analysed trends in employment rates among Finnish partnered and single mothers and fathers from 1987 to 2018. In the late 1980s’ Finland, single mothers’ employment was internationally high and on par with that of partnered mothers, and single fathers’ employment rate was just below that of partnered fathers. The gaps between single and partnered parents emerged and increased during the 1990s recession, and after the 2008 economic crisis, it widened further. In 2018, the employment rates of single parents were 11–12 percentage points lower than those of partnered parents. We ask how much of this single-parent employment gap could be explained by compositional factors, and the widening educational gradient of single parenthood in particular. We use Chevan and Sutherland’s decomposition technique on register data, which allows us to decompose the single-parent employment gap into the composition and rate effects by each category of the background variables. The findings point to an increasing double disadvantage of single parents: the gradually evolving disadvantage in educational backgrounds together with large differences in employment rates between single and partnered parents with low education explain large parts of the widening employment gap. Sociodemographic changes in interaction with changes in the labour market can produce inequalities by family structure in a Nordic society known for its extensive support for combining childcare and employment for all parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single motherhood has increased throughout Europe. Single mothers assume the dual role of provider and caregiver and often need external support from public policies or kin to meet their needs. Research has focused primarily on public policies, disregarding the role of kin support—and of multigenerational coresidence in particular. This study provides the first detailed description of single mothers' multigenerational coresidence in Europe. To do so, we combine census and survey microdata from 31 European countries. The data reveal large geographic variation in single mothers' coresidence. Whereas coresidence is a rare and temporary living arrangement in Northern and Western Europe, it is common and more permanent in Southern, Central, and especially Eastern Europe. At the same time, coresidence has declined in almost all countries with data from the past half‐century. These findings suggest large and persistent variation in kin support for single mothers and thus question the assumption of its marginal role in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many demographic challenges and new trends have been observed across formerly state socialist countries after embarking on their political and economic transition. Including countries that range from Eastern Europe to Central Asia, this study explores whether some family-related events were more sensitive to the transformation that occurred in the 1990s than others, and whether the disruption was immediate or delayed across this wide range of contexts. Based on year-specific hazard ratios over four decades, results point to changes in fertility patterns being clearly linked to the transition. Second birth rates reacted almost immediately to societal disruption, whereas a more delayed change occurred for first births. Although abrupt changes in marriage and divorce rates also occurred, these changes often began before the transition and therefore may be part of longer-term developments. That second births were the most sensitive family event to the immediate change in conditions may be due to economic costs, but also unique characteristics related both to its lack of conferring a new social role on the individual, such as in the case of marriage and parenthood, and the narrower window of time in which this event usually occurs. The delayed changes in first births may instead refiect changes in norms and culture that influenced younger individuals when they reached childbearing ages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Floods are a common natural hazard in Bangladesh, and climate change is expected to further increase flooding frequency, magnitude and extent. Pregnant women in flood contexts could face challenges in utilisation of maternal healthcare. The aim of this paper is to analyse associations between flood exposure and the use of maternal healthcare (antenatal care visits, birth assisted by skilled birth attendants, and giving birth in a health facility) in Bangladesh for pregnancies/births between 2004 and 2018. Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey data from four surveys in the time period 2007–2018 and data on floods from the Emergency Events Database and the Geocoded Disasters Dataset are analysed using multilevel linear probability models. In line with previous results, we find clear bivariate associations between exposure to flooding and maternal healthcare use. These associations are largely confounded by socioeconomic and demographic variables. In general, exposure to flooding — whether measured as exposure to any floods or severe floods — does not affect maternal healthcare use, and we suggest that the lower usage of maternal healthcare in areas exposed to flooding rather relates to the characteristics of the flood-prone areas and their populations, which also relate to lower maternal healthcare use. However, we find negative associations in some supplementary analyses, which suggest that even if there is no effect of floods on average, specific floods may have negative effects on maternal healthcare use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Glucocorticoids are one component of human milk (HM) potentially affecting offspring development. Previous studies have identified various maternal, obstetric and socioeconomic characteristics that are associated with HM cortisol concentration but the literature is still scarce concerning these determinants in human populations. We aimed to identify which factors are linked with HM cortisol concentration at 2 months postpartum. Methods: We analyzed data from 340 lactating Finnish mothers using ordinary least squares regression with log‐transformed HM cortisol concentration as the dependent variable. Potential predictors included obstetric and maternal factors (maternal age, parity status, delivery mode, gestational age, pre‐pregnancy obesity, and smoking in pregnancy), socioeconomic status (education and socioeconomic class), subjective economic well‐being, maternal psychosocial factors (postpartum depression and anxiety symptoms), infant sex and age, and HM sample characteristics (time of the day and season of the year at sample collection). Results: The strongest and most robust predictors were season of the year of sample collection and parity status. HM cortisol concentration was significantly higher for primiparas than multiparas. HM samples collected in summer showed significantly higher cortisol concentrations than those collected in winter, spring or autumn. Conclusions: The findings suggest that parity and season of the year at sample collection may be important factors to control for when examining HM cortisol. The strongest and most robust associations were related to maternal and sample characteristics and not to socioeconomic and psychosocial distress. This may be related to the fact that the study was conducted in a low‐risk population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study examines how the receipt of the cash‐for‐care (CFC) benefit affects short‐ and long‐term risks of union dissolution. Background: Several theories predict that couples' gendered division of labor decreases their risk of separation, either due to increased partnership satisfaction or because it establishes economic dependency. Family policies such as the Finnish CFC benefit, which is paid if a young child does not attend public daycare, may encourage such a gendered division of labor, at least temporarily. Method: Using Finnish register data, this study analyzes the first childbearing unions of 38,093 couples between 1987 and 2009. Discrete‐time event history analyses and fixed effects models for nonrepeated events are applied. Results: The results suggest a lower separation risk while the benefit is received as compared to couples who do not use it, but no effect in the long‐term. Fixed effects models that control for selection into CFC indicate postponement of separation until after take‐up. Higher‐income mothers show a stronger postponement effect, possibly due to greater income following leave. Conclusion: CFC use, which signals a temporary gendered division of labor and losses in mothers' earnings, predicts a lower separation risk during receipt of the benefit, but not beyond. Implications: Policies that affect the division of paid and unpaid labor at best only temporarily reduce dissolution risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To analyze the relationships between parental separation and partnership formation patterns across 16 countries and over time, and how the relationships are shaped by contextual factors. Background: Several studies have found that parental separation predicts higher rates of cohabitation and lower rates of marriage. Few studies have analyzed these relationships over time or across countries, and none have systematically analyzed whether they are moderated by contextual factors. Method: Retrospective partnership histories on 138,739 women and men from the Generations and Gender Survey and Harmonized Histories datafiles were used. Monthly data on entry into cohabitation or marriage as the first coresidential union, and on entry into marriage were analyzed using life table and event history techniques. The overall incidences of parental separation and of premarital cohabitation were used as contextual‐level measures in the event history analyses. Results: The association between parental separation and partnership formation was moderated by the spread of premarital cohabitation. Higher incidence of cohabitation was associated with a weaker positive association between parental separation and cohabitation, and a more negative association between parental separation and marriage. The associations between parental separation and partnership formation were not weaker when parental separation was more common. Conclusion: Children of divorce have been among the forerunners of the increase in cohabitation and the retreat from marriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimating the number of individuals living in a country is an essential task for demographers. This study assesses the potential bias in estimating the size of different migrant populations due to over-coverage in population registers. Over-coverage—individuals registered but not living in a country—is an increasingly pressing phenomenon; however, there is no common understanding of how to deal with over-coverage in demographic research. This study examines different approaches to and improvements in over-coverage estimation using Swedish total population register data. We assess over-coverage levels across migrant groups, test how estimates of age-specific death and fertility rates are affected when adjusting for over-coverage, and examine whether over-coverage can explain part of the healthy migrant paradox. Our results confirm the existence of over-coverage and we find substantial changes in mortality and fertility rates, when adjusted, for people of migrating age. Accounting for over-coverage is particularly important for correctly estimating migrant fertility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We developed a multiple pathways sequential logit model for analysing social background inequality in completed education and applied it to analyse educational inequality in Finland (birth cohorts 1960–1985). Our model builds on the sequential logit model for educational transitions, originally presented by Robert D. Mare and later extended by Maarten Buis, which disaggregates inequality in completed education into the weighted sum of inequalities in the transitions leading to it. Although the educational transitions framework is popular among educational stratification researchers, its applications have almost exclusively focused on analysing inequalities in separate educational transitions. Buis presented a unifying model of inequalities in educational transitions and completed education, which gives a substantive interpretation to the weights that link them. We applied this to an educational system in which the same educational outcomes can be reached through multiple pathways. Our analysis of Finnish register data shows that intergenerational educational persistence increased, particularly among women. The main reasons are increased inequality in academic upper-secondary (gymnasium) completion and gymnasium expansion that increased the weight of this transition as well as of the transition to university. We discuss the integration of structural and allocative mechanisms in educational stratification research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is a major cause of death in the Western world. In this study we aimed to investigate the relationship between area-level socioeconomic status (SES) and 30-day survival after OHCA. We hypothesised that high SES at an area level is associated with an improved chance of 30-day survival.Methods: Patients with OHCA in Stockholm County between 1 January 2006 and 31 December 2015 were analysed retrospectively. To quantify area-level SES, we linked the patient's home address to 250 × 250/1000 × 1000 meter grids with aggregated information about income and education. We constructed multivariable logistic regression models in which area-level SES measures were adjusted for age, sex, emergency medical services response time, witnessed status, initial rhythm, aetiology, location and year of cardiac arrest.Results: We included 7431 OHCAs. There was significantly greater 30-day survival (p=0.003) in areas with a high proportion of university-educated people. No statistically significant association was seen between median disposable income and 30-day survival. The adjusted OR for 30-day survival among patients in the highest educational quintile was 1.70 (95% CI 1.15 to 2.51) compared with patients in the lowest educational quintile. We found no significant interaction for sex. Positive trend with increasing area-level education was seen in both men and women but the trend was only statistically significant among men (p=0.012) CONCLUSIONS: Survival to 30 days after OHCA is positively associated with the average educational level of the residential area. Area-level income does not independently predict 30-day survival after OHCA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: One of the most obvious consequences of divorce is the moving out of one or both ex‐partners from the formerly common household. Here we focus on a particular postdivorce residential move, the return to the parental home in Sweden, where intergenerational coresidence is uncommon. We ask whether family dissolution increases the likelihood of intergenerational coresidence among separated/divorced individuals who have at least 1 child below age 18. Furthermore, we ask whether the strength of the effect depends on socio‐economic and geographical factors. Our analysis of 670,777 individuals from Swedish population register data shows that even if living with parents is, in absolute terms, not a common intergenerational support strategy, its likelihood increases considerably after a family dissolution. This event increases the probability of living with one's parents especially among men, those with low incomes, and those who live close to their parent(s). We discuss the implications of our findings for the literature on patterns of intergenerational support across Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Aims: To investigate socio‐economic disparities in smoking in pregnancy (SIP) by the mother's education, occupational class and current economic conditions. Design: Cross‐sectional analysis with linked survey and register data. Setting: South‐western Finland. Participants: A total of 2667 pregnant women [70% of the original sample (n = 3808)] from FinnBrain, a prospective pregnancy cohort study. Measurements: The outcome was smoking during the first pregnancy trimester, measured from the Finnish Medical Birth Register. Education and occupational class were linked from population registers. Income support recipiency and subjective economic wellbeing were questionnaire‐based measures of current economic conditions. These were adjusted for age, partnership status, residential area type, parental separation, parity, childhood socio‐economic background, childhood adversities (the Trauma and Distressing Events During Childhood scale) and antenatal stress (Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale). Logistic regressions and attributable fractions (AF) were estimated. Findings: Mother's education was the strongest socio‐economic predictor of SIP. Compared with university education, adjusted odds ratios (aORs) of SIP were: 2.2 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.2–3.9; P = 0.011] for tertiary vocational education, 4.4 (95% CI = 2.1–9.0; P < 0.001) for combined general and vocational secondary education, 2.9 (95% CI = 1.4–6.1; P = 0.006) for general secondary education, 9.5 (95% CI 5.0–18.2; P < 0.001) for vocational secondary education and 14.4 (95% CI = 6.3–33.0; P < 0.001) for compulsory schooling. The total AF of education was 0.5. Adjusted for the other variables, occupational class and subjective economic wellbeing did not predict SIP. Income support recipiency was associated positively with SIP (aOR = 1.8; 95% CI = 1.1–3.1; P = 0.022). Antenatal stress predicted SIP (aOR = 2.0; 95% CI = 1.4–2.8; P < 0.001), but did not attenuate its socio‐economic disparities. Conclusions: In Finland, socio‐economic disparities in smoking in pregnancy are attributable primarily to differences in the mother's educational level (low versus high) and orientation (vocational versus general). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND Despite widespread attention paid to the negative correlation between female education and divorce, we lack an explanation for it. In this study we use social exchange theory to assess two broad groups of explanations. According to the 'marital attraction' explanation, educated women's marriages have higher marital quality and marital satisfaction. According to the 'barriers to divorce' explanation, educated women's marriages include factors that raise the cost of divorcing. Many previous studies have referred to variants of the former explanation, whereas the latter has been less prominent. Our objective is to investigate the explanatory power of these two explanations. METHODS We use discrete-time event history models to document the educational gradient of divorce from first marriages using the British Household Panel Survey (N = 1,263) for the years 1996-2009. We subsequently perform a mediation analysis to explain the educational gradient in divorce and a path analysis to distinguish which factors shape marital attraction and barriers to divorce. RESULTS Female education is positively related to marital stability, but this association is only partly explained by educational differences in marital satisfaction and variables that shape attractions. Variables interpreted as affecting barriers to divorce, such as home ownership and having divorced parents, provide an at least equally important explanation of the educational gradient in divorce. CONTRIBUTION This paper shows that the negative female educational gradient of divorce is shaped not only by educational differences in marital attraction, but also by differences in barriers to divorce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigration and family change are two demographic processes that have changed the face of European societies and are associated with inequalities in child outcomes. Yet there is little research outside the USA on whether the effects of family dynamics on children's life chances vary by immigrant background. We asked whether the effect of parental separation on educational achievement varies between immigrant backgrounds (ancestries) in Sweden. We used Swedish population register data on two birth cohorts (born in 1995 and 1996) of Swedish-born children and analyzed parental separation penalties on grade sums and non-passing grades (measured at ninth grade) across ten ancestry groups, defined by the mother's country of birth. We found that the parental separation effects vary across ancestries, being weakest among children with Chilean-born mothers and strongest among children with mothers born in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In general, the effects were weaker in groups in which parental separation was a more common experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has documented that children who do not live with both biological parents fare somewhat worse on a variety of outcomes than those who do. In this article, which is the introduction to the Special Issue on 'Family dynamics and children's well-being and life chances in Europe,' we refine this picture by identifying variation in this conclusion depending on the family transitions and subpopulations studied. We start by discussing the general evidence accumulated for parental separation and ask whether the same picture emerges from research on other family transitions and structures. Subsequently, we review studies that have aimed to deal with endogeneity and discuss whether issues of causality challenge the general picture of family transitions lowering child well-being. Finally, we discuss whether previous evidence finds effects of family transitions on child outcomes to differ between children from different socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds, and across countries and time-periods studied. Each of the subsequent articles in this Special Issue contributes to these issues. Two articles provide evidence on how several less often studied family forms relate to child outcomes in the European context. Two other articles in this Special Issue contribute by resolving several key questions in research on variation in the consequences of parental separation by socioeconomic and immigrant background, two areas of research that have produced conflicting results so far. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Marital status, income, and education might influence the risk of esophageal and gastric cancer, but the literature is limited. A large study addressing subtypes of these tumors was used to clarify these associations.Methods: A nationwide, Swedish population-based cohort study from 1991 to 2010 included individuals who were 50 years old or older. Data on exposures, covariates, and outcomes were obtained from well-maintained registers. Four esophagogastric tumor subtypes were analyzed in combination and separately: esophageal adenocarcinoma, esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, cardia adenocarcinoma, and noncardia gastric adenocarcinoma. Poisson regression was used to estimate incidence rate ratios (IRRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Analyses were stratified by sex and adjusted for confounders.Results: Among 4,734,227 participants (60,634,007 person-years), 24,095 developed esophageal or gastric cancer. In comparison with individuals in a long marriage, increased IRRs were found among participants who were in a shorter marriage or were never married, remarried, divorced, or widowed. These associations were indicated for each tumor subtype but were generally stronger for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Higher education and income were associated with decreased IRRs in a seemingly dose-response manner and similarly for each subtype. In comparison with the completion of only primary school, higher tertiary education rendered an IRR of 0.64 (95% CI, 0.60-0.69) for men and an IRR of 0.68 (95% CI, 0.61-0.75) for women. Comparing participants in the highest and lowest income brackets (highest 20% vs lowest 20%) revealed an IRR of 0.74 (95% CI, 0.70-0.79) for men and an IRR of 0.83 (95% CI, 0.76-0.91) for women.Conclusions: Divorce, widowhood, living alone, low educational attainment, and low income increase the risk of each subtype of esophageal and gastric cancer. These associations require attention when high-risk individuals are being identified. Cancer 2016;122:207-212. © 2015 American Cancer Society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we use multilevel growth-curve analysis to model occupational stratification across West German careers for cohorts born between 1919 and 1971. We argue that a life-course approach gives a more appropriate perspective into social stratification by focusing on the permanence of inequalities across human lives. With data from the German Life History Study (GLHS), our primary interest is in the amount and timing of career progression and the ways in which educational attainment, class background, and cohort context shape them. We confirm previous findings of limited career progression and permanence in occupational inequality. Thus, career mobility can correct for initial disadvantages only to a limited degree. We also confirm the strong role played by the standardized and stratified German educational system, which channels workers into specific occupations with strict boundaries. We find a substantial gross effect of class background, which is strongly mediated by educational attainment for women but not for men. We do not find any general indications of a trend in change across cohorts, although there are some weak indications that men who entered the labor market in the problematic 1970s had weaker career growth. We conclude by discussing the advantages of a life-course approach to occupational stratification and the possibilities of growth-curve analysis to answer pertinent questions in research on careers and occupational mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using sibling data from the German Life History Study and fixed-effects models, I find that birth order has a strong negative effect on educational attainment in West Germany—being born later translates to less education. The strength of the birth order effect is comparable to those of many commonly used family background indicators. This finding contrasts many sceptical accounts of birth order found in the sociological and psychological literatures. The results of this study also show the sensitivity of birth order estimates to model specification, pointing to a likely cause for conflicting results in the previous literature. Birth order effects are weaker for females and in larger families, but do not vary according to families’ socioeconomic characteristics. The effects are likewise strong at transition from compulsory school to Gymnasium, but not significant on the transition from Gymnasium to university. Overall, the results do not support theories emphasizing the dilution of socioeconomic resources, nor do they support theories on age-crossovers in birth order effects at around age 11. However, the dilution of other family resources such as parental time and attention is a possible candidate. The weaker birth order effects among females can reflect the traditionally gender unequal returns to education, in which intellectual and school performance advantages to lower birth order do not translate into better educational attainment among German women. Overall, these findings underline the importance of birth order in shaping socioeconomic achievement and, more generally, of the factors that affect the experiences and inequalities of children growing up in the same family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We theorize how social policy affects marital stability vis-à-vis macro and micro effects of wives' employment on divorce risk in 11 Western countries. Correlations among 1990s aggregate data on marriage, divorce, and wives' employment rates, along with attitudinal and social policy information, seem to support specialization hypotheses that divorce rates are higher where more wives are employed and where policies support that employment. This is an ecological fallacy, however, because of the nature of the changes in specific countries. At the micro level, we harmonize national longitudinal data on the most recent cohort of wives marrying for the first time and find that the stabilizing effects of a gendered division of labor have ebbed. In the United States with its lack of policy support, a wife's employment still significantly increases the risk of divorce. A wife's employment has no significant effect on divorce risk in Australia, Flanders, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. In Finland, Norway, and Sweden, wives' employment predicts a significantly lower risk of divorce when compared with wives who are out of the labor force. The results indicate that greater policy support for equality reduces and may even reverse the relative divorce risk associated with a wife's employment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite the large literature on the long-term effects of parental divorce, few studies have analyzed the effects of parental divorce on spouse selection behavior. However, the characteristics of one's spouse can have important effects on economic well-being and on marital success. We use discrete-time, event-history data from Finnish population registers to study the effects of parental divorce on entry into marriage with spouses who have different educational qualifications (both absolute and relative to one's own education), using conditional multinomial logistic regression models. The results show that Finnish children of divorce have lower rates of marriage than those from intact families. In particular, children of divorce have a lower likelihood of marrying spouses with secondary education or more, and especially low rates of marrying someone with a tertiary degree. The latter gap is smaller among those with tertiary education, as a result of the higher rates of homogamous marriage among the children of divorce with high education. Our findings suggest that children of divorce carry with them traits and behaviors that make them less marriageable candidates in the marriage market. We discuss the possible implications of these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article, we study the effects of prenatal health on educational attainment and on the reproduction of family background inequalities in education. Using Finnish birth cohort data, we analyze several maternal and fetal health variables, many of which have not been featured in the literature on long-term socioeconomic effects of health despite the effects of these variables on birth and short-term health outcomes. We find strong negative effects of mother's prenatal smoking on educational attainment, which are stronger if the mother smoked heavily but are not significant if she quit during the first trimester. Anemia during pregnancy is also associated with lower levels of attained education. Other indicators of prenatal health (pre-pregnancy obesity, mother's antenatal depressed mood, hypertension and preeclampsia, early prenatal care visits, premature birth, and small size for gestational age) do not predict educational attainment. Our measures explain little of the educational inequalities by parents' class or education. However, smoking explains 12%-and all health variables together, 19%-of the lower educational attainment of children born to unmarried mothers. Our findings point to the usefulness of proximate health measures in addition to general ones. They also point to the potentially important role played by early health in intergenerational processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze occupational attainment and career progression over the life course for Swedish men and women, born in 1925-1974. Careers progress (measured as improvements in occupational prestige) fast during the first 5-10 years in the labour market, and flatten out afterwards (approximately between 30-40 years of age). This is in line with the occupational status maturation hypothesis. Both class origin and educational attainment affect occupational attainment. The effects of educational attainment vary more over the career, but depend on the educational attainment level in question. Successive cohorts of women gain higher occupational prestige, and continue to gain in occupational prestige longer across their careers. We also find that cohorts that entered the labour market in times of economic downturns and restructuring (the oil crisis years and the early 1990s) had more difficulties in establishing their careers. Returns to education generally increase across cohorts, while class background differences decrease, as has been reported in earlier research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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We used data on women's first marriages from the Fertility and Family Surveys to analyse the intergenerational transmission of divorce across 18 countries and to seek explanations in macro-level characteristics for the cross-national variation. Our results show that women whose parents divorced have a significantly higher risk of divorce in 17 countries. There is some cross-national variation. When compared with the USA, the association is stronger in six countries. This variation is negatively associated with the proportion of women in each cohort who experienced the divorce of their parents and with the national level of women's participation in the labour force during childhood. We conclude that differences in the contexts in which children of divorce learn marital and interpersonal behaviour affect the strength of the intergenerational transmission of divorce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a series of papers, William J. Goode argued that the relationship between modernization and the class composition of divorce is inverse. Starting from his hypothesis, we examine the relationship between female education and the risk of divorce over time in 17 countries. We expect that the relationship differs across countries and across time, so that women with higher education have a higher risk of divorce in countries and at times when the social and economic costs of divorce are high, and that there is no relationship or a negative relationship where these costs are lower. Using discrete-time event-history techniques on data on first marriages from the Fertility and Family Surveys (FF5), we find that women with higher education had a higher risk of divorce in France, Greece, Italy, Poland, and Spain. We do not find a relationship between education and divorce in Estonia, Finland, West-Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Sweden, and Switzerland, nor, depending on the model specification, in Flanders and Norway. In Austria, Lithuania, and the United States, the educational gradient of divorce is negative. Furthermore, as predicted by our hypotheses, the educational gradient becomes increasingly negative in Flanders, Finland, France, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden, and the United States. We explore this variation across time and countries in more detail with multilevel models and direct measures on the legal, social, and economic environment of the countries. We find that the de-institutionalization of marriage and unconventional family practices are associated with a negative educational gradient of divorce, while welfare state expenditure is associated with a more positive gradient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses various issues related to changes that have taken place in the field of sociological research in Finland, with specific reference to features of certain articles published in sociological periodicals. Sociologists agree on two changes which are assumed to have taken place over the last decades: sociological research has become more theoretical and less empirical; and quantitative research has been replaced by qualitative research . It is stated that there has been little empirical research within Finnish sociology, but its visibility has been increasing. It is viewed that although there has been more qualitative research lately, both quantitative and qualitative methods have been equally represented since the end of 1970s.

Background: This study sought to investigate if parental divorce in childhood increases the risk for depressive symptoms in pregnancy.Methods: Women were recruited during their ultrasound screening in gestational week (gwk) 12. The final study sample consisted of 2,899 pregnant women. Questionnaires (including the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale) were completed at three measurement points (gwk 14, 24 and 34). Prenatal depressive symptoms were defined as Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale score ≥ 13. Parental divorce and other stressful life events in childhood were assessed at gwk 14. Parental divorce was defined as separation of parents who were married or cohabiting. Questionnaire data was supplemented with data from Statistics Finland and the Finnish Medical Birth Register.Results: Parental divorce in childhood increased the risk for depressive symptoms during pregnancy (OR 1.47; 95% CI 1.02-2.13), but the connection was no longer significant after adjusting for socioeconomic status, family conflicts and witnessing domestic violence in the childhood family (OR 0.80; 95% CI 0.54-1.18).Conclusions: Parental divorce alone does not predict depressive symptoms during pregnancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]