Search

This study contributes to the growing literature on the repercussions of the COVID- 19 pandemic for family functioning, with a special focus on couples’ relationship quality. We advance an analytical model that emphasizes the role of three main stressors of relationship quality during the pandemic: namely, emotional, paid work-related and organizational stressors. To outline such an approach, we analyze whether the onset of the pandemic – and the home confinement that followed – has reduced relationship quality in France, Italy and Spain using survey data collected in April 2020.We show that relationship quality decreased for a non-negligible part of the population, and that this result was driven mostly by the emotional stressor. These negative effects on relationship quality appeared to be relatively stable across genders, different levels of network support and countries; which suggests that the severity of the lockdown measures outweighed the traditional moderating factors usually accounted for in family research.

La salud sexual y reproductiva, que incluye la unión y el embarazo adolescente, es un fenómeno multidimensional y multisectorial en el cual concluyen diversos factores, que operan o se expresan de manera desigual entre los grupos socioeconómicos. El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar la relación entre el descenso de la fecundidad adolescente y la desigualdad social y territorial en cinco ciudades latinoamericanas. Se utilizó para ello la explotación de los censos de población para las rondas censales de 1990, 2000, 2010 y 2020 por medio de indicadores de polaridad, correlación y tasas específicas. El principal hallazgo del estudio es que la desigualdad social de la unión y la maternidad entre adolescentes aumentó en todas las ciudades, tanto por la menor caída entre las adolescentes de estratos pobres, como por el mayor descenso entre las adolescentes de estratos acomodados.

Abstract The relationship between gender role attitudes and fertility intentions is highly debated among social scientists. We emphasize the need for a multidimensional theoretical and empirical approach to extend the two-step behavioral gender revolution approach to a three-step attitudinal gender revolution approach distinguishing between gender roles in the public sphere, mothers’ role in the family, and fathers’ role in the family. Using the Generations and Gender Survey of eight European countries, we demonstrate the usefulness of such an approach. Gender equal attitudes related to the public sphere are more widespread than those concerning mothers’ or fathers’ roles in the family. Our results show that the association between gender role attitudes and fertility intentions varies—in terms of significance and magnitude—according to the dimension considered (gender roles in the public sphere, mothers’ and fathers’ role in the family), gender, parity, and country. We conclude that without a clear concept of and empirical distinction between the various elements of the gender role attitudes/fertility nexus, scientific investigations will continue to send conflicting messages.

Abstract The generalized and relatively homogeneous fertility decline across European countries in the aftermath of the Great Recession poses serious challenges to our knowledge of contemporary low fertility patterns. In this paper, we argue that fertility decisions are not a mere “statistical shadow of the past”, and advance the Narrative Framework, a new approach to the relationship between economic uncertainty and fertility. This framework proffers that individuals act according to or despite uncertainty based on their “narrative of the future” – imagined futures embedded in social elements and their interactions. We also posit that personal narratives of the future are shaped by the “shared narratives” produced by socialization agents, including parents and peers, as well as by the narratives produced by the media and other powerful opinion formers. Finally, within this framework, we propose several empirical strategies, from both a qualitative and a quantitative perspective, including an experimental approach, for assessing the role of narratives of the future in fertility decisions.

Abstract While sexuality has radically changed across middle–high-income societies in recent years, only outdated studies are available for Italy. We aim to provide novel insights into the sexual behaviour and opinions of young Italians diachronically and through a gendered lens. Our analysis compares the results of two national samples of university students collected in 2000 and 2017. The sexual behaviour and opinions of young men and women seem to be converging in several respects. We observed a feminisation of male opinions and behaviour within couples, which is to say that men are more likely to experience first intercourse with a young woman of roughly the same age while in a stable relationship, and betray—or accept betrayal—with less frequency and willingness than in the past. Similarly, we found a masculinisation of female opinions and behaviour outside of stable relationships, for example, an increase in occasional partners, a net drop in the expectation that other women hold virgin status before marriage, and a doubling of the acceptance of casual sex. A few gender differences remain, especially concerning sexual double standards: young men and women are still subject to diverse rules guiding their sexual behaviour. Finally, acceptance of homosexuality has risen substantially—particularly among women.

Abstract Virginity, as a status, carries with it enormous personal and social meaning and represents a sexual milestone with high cultural significance. In this paper, we describe the correlates of virginity in Italy by consulting a large-scale survey of university students conducted in 2000 and 2017 (N = 12,400). First, we note a reduction between 2000 and 2017 of both male and female students reporting themselves as virgins at the time of the interview. Second, we highlight the salience of several demographic-, family-, interpersonal-, bodily-, and health-related factors associated with their virginity status. Third, the findings of the present study draw special attention to two crucial characteristics of Italian society: regional divisions and the role of religiosity. We show that, although religiosity is still important to the sexual lives of Italian youths, its relevance is weakening over time. In all, our study extends research on sexuality among Italian youths and sheds light on factors related to their virginity, seeking to feed future research on the topic.

Recent research suggests that the fertility-education relationship may be mediated by the educational attainment of the partner, especially among the tertiary-educated. However, there are no studies focusing on the couple-education-fertility nexus among couples who achieved only basic educational attainment, even though resource pooling theory predicts differences in family formation by couples’ joint levels of socio-economic resources. We address this research gap and investigate how educational pairings among married and cohabiting partners relate to second and third birth transitions across 22 European countries, using data from the EU-SILC (European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions) panel and discrete time event history models. Our findings show significantly lower second and third birth transition rates among homogamous low-educated couples compared to heterogamous couples with one low- and one medium or highly-educated partner in the Nordic countries, but not across the rest of Europe. However, couples with one or two low-educated partners have significantly lower second birth rates compared with couples with two highly-educated partners in all European regions.

Background: 'Silver splits' - the union dissolutions after the age of 50 - have received growing attention in both the press and nonacademic discourse. Nonetheless, while there is a vast amount of research on the sociodemographic, health-related, and economic consequences of late union dissolution, no studies have yet (to the best of our knowledge) analysed the correlates of silver splits in Europe. Objective: This paper aims to document the correlates of union dissolution in later life in Europe, with a specific focus on the role played by grandchildren. Methods: We used data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and employed logistic regression to model the probability of experiencing union dissolution after the age of 50. Results: Our results show that (1) having grandchildren is related to a lower probability of experiencing a silver split, (2) the other correlates of silver splits generally do not differ from the classical correlates of union dissolution early in life, and (3) the European correlates of silver splits accord with those found in the literature for North America. Contribution: This study sheds light on an increasingly relevant new family process occurring later in life (silver splits), thereby filling a clear gap in the European literature. Among the correlates of silver splits, the role of grandchildren appears crucial. They serve to 'refill the nest' once a couple's children have left, thereby inhibiting silver splits as grandparents assume new responsibilities in the family and society.

Diferentes teorías prevén un agotamiento económico de las grandes ciudades y una reversión de su atractivo migratorio. Otras teorías pronostican su fortalecimiento como centros de control y comando en la economía globalizada que mantendrán su atractivo migratorio, a la larga selectivo, en términos socioeconómicos. Este debate normalmente no considera la selectividad por edad de la migración, y en particular, el atractivo histórico de las grandes ciudades para los jóvenes. Mediante la explotación novedosa de microdatos censales de las décadas de 1980 a 2010 de una venintena de ciudades grandes de América Latina, se estiman las tasas de migración únicamente internas, por edad, y se calculan los efectos de la migración sobre el crecimiento y la composición etaria de estas ciudades con procedimientos de reciente factura. Los resultados ratifican el pertinaz atractivo de las ciudades para los jóvenes, y que, pese al descenso de este, la migración interna sigue rejuveneciendo a las grandes ciudades.

Background: The link between economic forces and family dynamics has received renewed attention in the present era of heightened uncertainty. Economic uncertainty has usually been linked to unfavorable labor market circumstances, such as unemployment and short-term contracts. Nonetheless, union formation may also be affected by subjective appraisals of employment conditions, including employment security and - acknowledging the prospective nature of uncertainty itself -expectations of future employment. Objective: This study seeks to empirically disentangle the effects of the objective and subjective sides of individual employment uncertainty on the entry into union. Methods: We apply event history techniques to longitudinal data taken from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey to examine whether and how objective measures of employment uncertainty (labor market status and contract type) and subjective measures (employment security and employment expectations) are associated with entry into a first union. Results: Our results show that objective markers of employment uncertainty - unemployment or temporary (casual) jobs - inhibit entry into a union for both men and women. Furthermore, different appraisals of employment uncertainty affect union formation across employment conditions. When individuals face objective employment uncertainty while still expecting their employment situation to improve, either by exiting unemployment (in particular among men) or retaining their jobs (among both sexes), union formation is not necessarily postponed. Contribution: We stress the importance of considering how different future expectations influence family formation across different levels of objective uncertainty. The sole use of objective markers of employment uncertainty provides only a partial, and possibly inaccurate, perspective on union formation: the specter of the future also matters.

Background: Fertility decisions, as all life actions, imply a balancing of anticipated costs and benefits whose expectations are formed under uncertainty. Fertility research has addressed the backward reasonings (e.g., socioeconomic, psychological, biological factors) influencing fertility decisions. Yet, the role of forward factors, such as the preference for immediate but lower benefits versus future but higher benefits, in influencing fertility decisions has been overlooked. Objective: Time preferences, also referred to as impatience, is a personal characteristic that has been found to influence different types of decisions, from financial investments to schooling decisions. The present study is the first that empirically explores whether this trait represents a determinant of human reproductive behaviors. Methods: Data are from the Survey on Household Income and Wealth carried out by the Bank of Italy every two years on a sample of about 8,000 households. In particular, we make use of a question included in the 2004, 2008, 2010, and 2012 waves to examine whether, controlling for backward factors, impatience affects parity progressions. Results: Results from logistic regression models indicate an inverse U-shaped association between impatience and the transition to the first and second child during the observation period, meaning that for very impatient and very patient individuals the probability of having a first and second child is lower than for individuals within intermediate levels of impatience. Conclusions: The empirical finding points to the importance of considering time discounting preferences (as well as other forward-looking factors) in fertility research to gain a more complete understanding of fertility behaviours. Contribution: The orientation toward the future plays an important role in predicting fertility behavior. TDP as a a basis for inter-temporal decision making represent a key factor to better understanding contemporary fertility decision-making processes.

Abstract Homeownership is the most important asset among the elderly in Europe, but very little is known about gender and living arrangement differences in this domain. This paper aims at exploring patterns of exclusion from homeownership among middle-aged and older Europeans from a gender perspective, and with a special focus on their household composition. The analysis is based on the fourth wave of the “Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe” and includes a sub-sample of about 56,000 individuals aged 50 or over, living in 16 European countries. We estimated a set of multinomial logit models to examine the probability of being either tenant or rent-free occupiers versus homeowners. Our findings show that women are generally more likely to be excluded from homeownership than men. Nevertheless, a closer look suggests that the gender gap in homeownership is essentially generated by compositional differences between men and women, with the most relevant factor being household type. Older women are almost as twice as likely as men to live alone, which is associated—other things being equal—with a particular low likelihood to be homeowners virtually in every European country.

En el marco del debate sobre las denominadas mutaciones metropolitanas, la diversificación social de la periferia y las tendencias de la segregación socioeconómica residencial, se estima el efecto de la migración interna sobre la composición educativa de ámbitos intrametropolitanos y la segregación residencial, medida con el índice de disimilitud de varios grupos educativos, en Santiago, Chile. Se usa una metodología novedosa desarrollada en CELADE que utiliza microdatos censales. Los resultados indican que la migración contribuye a diversificar socioeducativamente a la periferia y es decisiva para la emergencia de núcleos de alta educación en zonas históricamente desaventajadas de la periferia. Pero, contra la narrativa predominante, la migración no reduce la segregación residencial, principalmente porque disminuye los niveles educativos en el pericentro, más bien pobre y en proceso de pauperización y, en cambio, los aumenta en la zona acomodada.

Background: Demographers are increasingly interested in connecting demographic behaviour and trends with 'soft' measures, i.e., complementary information on attitudes, values, feelings, and intentions. Objective: The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how computational linguistic techniques can be used to explore opinions and semantic orientations related to parenthood. Methods: In this article we scrutinize about three million filtered Italian tweets from 2014. First, we implement a methodological framework relying on Natural Language Processing techniques for text analysis, which is used to extract sentiments. We then run a supervised machine-learning experiment on the overall dataset, based on the annotated set of tweets from the previous stage. Consequently, we infer to what extent social media users report negative or positive affect on topics relevant to the fertility domain. Results: Parents express a generally positive attitude towards being and becoming parents, but they are also fearful, surprised, and sad. They also have quite negative sentiments about their children's future, politics, fertility, and parental behaviour. By exploiting geographical information from tweets we find a significant correlation between the prevalence of positive sentiments about parenthood and macro-regional indicators of both life satisfaction and fertility level. Contribution: We show how tweets can be used to represent soft measures such as attitudes, values, and feelings, and we establish how they relate to demographic features. Linguistic analysis of social media data provides a middle ground between qualitative studies and more standard quantitative approaches.

Background: The vast majority of demographic studies have approached and operationalised the notion of economic uncertainty using snapshot indicators. Hence, the complexity and diversity of individuals' employment careers were largely hidden. We posit that the persistence of joblessness - that is, repeated and close spells of joblessness - represents a crucial marker of economic uncertainty in the realm of fertility (intention) research. Objective: We aim to explore the association between persistent joblessness of both members of the couple and women's fertility intentions among those who entered employment at least once in the last five years. Methods: We develop an index of persistent joblessness that simultaneously considers individual and contextual labour market conditions. It accounts for the severity of the experience of joblessness, the chances that an individual will escape joblessness, the alleviating effects of the years spent in continuous employment, and the recentness of any joblessness experience. This index is operationalized for Italy by consulting the 2009 Family and Social Subjects Survey. We verify the association between the index and women's fertility intentions among Italian couples, net of a series of confounders. Results: Our findings show that the higher the level of persistent joblessness, the lower a woman's fertility intentions. Within couples, we found a gendered association between joblessness and fertility intentions: His joblessness, more than hers, seems to play the decisive role in inhibiting a woman's fertility intentions. Contribution: We corroborated that joblessness inhibits positive fertility intentions and facilitates negative fertility intentions. But we also added that these associations are much more pronounced when joblessness has been persistent. Disregarding the role of persistence in joblessness, scholars might underestimate the importance of individual-risk factors linked to labour market biographies in fertility planning. We additionally illustrated that accounting for regional labour market dynamics, thus placing one's own level of persistence in joblessness in context, is pivotal.

Mediante el procesamiento de los microdatos de los censos de las décadas del ochenta y noventa del siglo XX y de la primera del XXI se estima el atractivo migratorio de dieciocho áreas metropolitanas de seis países de América Latina. Se usan dos delimitaciones geográficas —una acotada y otra ampliada— para estimar el efecto que la definición tiene sobre la estimación de la migración. También se distingue entre la migración con el entorno de la ciudad y con el resto del país, para entender los procesos espaciales de concentración, desconcentración y desarrollo de nuevas formas metropolitanas vinculados a esta dinámica migratoria. Los resultados indican que la emigración neta predomina entre las megápolis, pero la inmigración neta predomina en el resto de las ciudades, lo que sugiere pertinaces ventajas y mayores oportunidades ofrecidas por estas últimas. Los cambios de definición afectan, a veces decisivamente, las estimaciones. Y la migración se asocia a procesos espaciales más específicos que generalizados, en algunos casos de desconcentración genuina, en otros de desconcentración concentrada y en algunos de continuidad de la concentración o configuración de nuevas modalidades de centralidad.

La migración, por su selectividad, afecta la composición de la población de los lugares de destino y origen. Mediante el procesamiento de microdatos censales se obtienen matrices de indicadores de flujos migratorios; con ellas, y usando procedimientos novedosos, se estima el efecto neto y exclusivo de la migración sobre la composición por sexo, edad y educación de doce ciudades de siete países de la región. Luego, este efecto se segmenta entre el originado por el intercambio con otras ciudades y el producido por el intercambio con el resto del sistema de asentamientos humanos de cada país. A continuación, y como ejercicio separado, se descompone el efecto debido a la inmigración y el debido a la emigración. Los principales resultados de la investigación son: a) la migración interna total (entre ciudades y con el resto del sistema de asentamientos humanos) sigue tendiendo a feminizar las ciudades, pero ya no por la atracción selectiva de mujeres, sino por una emigración selectiva de hombres; b) la migración interna tiende a robustecer la franja intermedia de edad y a comprimir la representación de los menores de 15 años y de los adultos mayores en las ciudades. La combinación de estos efectos sobre la estructura por edad de la población de las ciudades acrecienta el denominado "bono demográfico" de éstas; c) la migración interna tiende a deprimir, en general ligeramente, los niveles educativos de las ciudades (incluso una vez controlada la edad); el intercambio con otras ciudades es el responsable principal de este efecto, por lo cual resulta inapropiado achacarlo a la migración desde el campo; d) la inmigración tiende a elevar el nivel educativo promedio de las ciudades, por lo cual el efecto reductor observado se debe a la emigración. Estos resultados actualizan, modifican y complejizan la visión existente en materia de impacto de la migración interna sobre las ciudades. Aunque cada ciudad tiene sus especificidades y las recomendaciones de política deben basarse en la realidad de cada una de ellas, en general se advierten efectos mixtos de la migración sobre las ciudades, ya que se ven favorecidas por el efecto sobre ciertos atributos (como el bono demográfico) pero en otros aspectos se ven debilitadas (como en la educación promedio). Cualquiera que sea el caso, los resultados sugieren que las políticas destinadas a influir sobre la inmigración -amén de desaconsejables e incompatibles con los acuerdos internacionales en materia de población, cuando se trata de medidas que limitan el libre desplazamiento de las personas- han perdido relevancia por cuanto los efectos cualitativos de la migración dependen principalmente de la emigración.

Background: Empirical findings regarding the impact of women's employment on divorce are mixed. One explanation is that the effects are moderated by the country context. Another is that previous studies have failed to account for unobserved factors that introduce bias into the estimated effects. Studies also rarely consider possible anticipatory employment behavior on the part of women who are thinking of divorce. Objective: The aim of this study is to deepen our understanding of the nexus between women's employment and divorce in a comparative perspective. Methods: We adopt an analytical strategy that allows us to account for selection and anticipation mechanisms. Namely, we estimate marital disruption and employment jointly, and monitor the timing of divorce after employment entry. This approach is implemented using micro-level data for Germany, Hungary, Italy, and Poland. Results: We find that women's employment facilitates marital disruption in Italy and Poland, but not in Germany and Hungary. We also show that selection effects play out differently in different contexts. Finally, we notice traces of anticipatory behavior in Italy. Contribution: We conclude that women's employment is less likely to be linked to divorce in countries with easier access to divorce and in countries with more generous financial support for families and single mothers, which in turn makes women less reliant on the market. With this study we hope to encourage future researchers to consider the potentially distorting effects of selection and anticipation strategies in (comparative) divorce research.

En el presente estudio se utilizaron los datos de las DHS de Brasil (1996) y Colombia (2000) y se han aplicado modelos de regresión logística para determinar cuáles son los factores de riesgo de la fecundidad adolescente. Los resultados evidencian la mayor vulnerabilidad de los grupos socioeconomicamente más débiles, y la interacción entre variables intermedias y variables socioeconómicas. Sin embargo, la educación pierde su efecto específico al controlar el estrato socioeconómico; y el lugar de residencia parece no afectar la probabilidad de ser madre adolescente. Esto sugiere que la fecundidad temprana en ambos países no se puede definir como un comportamiento tradicional, sino más bien como un comportamiento conectado con el proceso de secularización valórica.

En el análisis de las tendencias de la distribución espacial de la población y las corrientes migratorias, tres asuntos se contrastan con la evidencia producida mediante el procesamiento de los microdatos de los tres últimos censos chilenos de población y vivienda (1982, 1992 y 2002). El primero atañe a la concentración de la población chilena en el Área Metropolitana del Gran Santiago (amgs) y en la región político administrativa que la contiene (Región Metropolitana o rm); dos hipótesis en pugna se confrontan con los datos: la que sugiere la prevalencia del atractivo migratorio del amgs y la rm, como resultado de su capacidad para seguir liderando el dinamismo económico, y la que plantea un cambio de orientación de los flujos, tras lo cual quedarían el amgs y la rm con saldos negativos por la pérdida que tendrían en el intercambio con las regiones más dinámicas, que serían aquellas mejor ubicadas en la globalización productiva. Los datos sugieren que efectivamente en la segunda mitad del decenio de 1990 la Región Metropolitana y el amgs mostraron la novedosa condición de zonas de emigración neta, pero que paradójicamente esto no alcanza para revertir el incremento de la concentración de la población nacional en ellas por el efecto combinado de un crecimiento natural sobre la media y una fuerte absorción de inmigrantes internacionales. El segundo asunto refiere a los procesos de convergencia regional y al papel de la migración en ellos, respecto del cual hay varias hipótesis, tanto sobre la existencia de tal proceso en las diferentes dimensiones socioeconómicas, como sobre el efecto de los flujos de migración interna en él.El impacto de la migración sobre los niveles de escolaridad regional se evalúa usando procedimientos novedosos que operan con microdatos censales y que se presentan para su discusión; los resultados indican que en los dos últimos periodos censales la migración entre regiones ha favorecido, aunque muy ligeramente, la convergencia de niveles educativos regionales. Finalmente, el tercer asunto se relaciona con la segregación urbana, respecto de la cual se discute la hipótesis de una reducción de sus niveles y una remodelación de sus formas como resultado del desplazamiento de algunas familias de altos ingresos a comunas periféricas y pobres del amgs. La evidencia producida y analizada indica que la migración intrametropolitana desempeña un doble papel, pues mientras reduce la escala de la segregación sigue siendo una fuerza que tiende a ensan char las disparidades socioeconómicas entre comunas. Se concluye que tanto para promover los flujos migratorios afines a la estrategia de desarrollo regional, como para evitar que se consoliden territorios de pobreza dura en las ciudades, donde ésta tiende casi inexorablemente a reproducirse, se requieren políticas territoriales, algunas para reforzar tendencias derivadas de la acción de los mercados y otras, en cambio, para mitigar o contrarrestar tendencias derivadas del libre juego de la oferta y la demanda.

Resumen La reproducción en la adolescencia sin formación de unión se está incrementando en la región, lo que acarrea el aumento de las madres adolescentes que siguen viviendo en el hogar de su familia. En principio, la maternidad sin pareja parece adversa; pero, la permanencia en el hogar parental puede suplir, al menos parcialmente, la ausencia de pareja. La magnitud de este apoyo familiar, así como sus características y distinciones según nivel socioeconómico casi no ha sido estudiada en la región con un enfoque comparativo. Por ello, en esta investigación se actualizan las cifras y se describen tendencias, segmentadas según nivel socioeconómico, de la maternidad adolescente sin pareja y de la maternidad adolescente con permanencia en el hogar de la familia, y se evalúa el efecto de dicha permanencia sobre indicadores socioeconómicos de la madre y el bebé en comparación con la maternidad adolescente tradicional (con formación de nuevo hogar)

La reproducción en la adolescencia sin formación de unión se está incrementando en la región, lo que acarrea el aumento de las madres adolescentes que siguen viviendo en el hogar de su familia. En principio, la maternidad sin pareja parece adversa; pero, la permanencia en el hogar parental puede suplir, al menos parcialmente, la ausencia de pareja. La magnitud de este apoyo familiar, así como sus características y distinciones según nivel socioeconómico casi no ha sido estudiada en la región con un enfoque comparativo. Por ello, en esta investigación se actualizan las cifras y se describen tendencias, segmentadas según nivel socioeconómico, de la maternidad adolescente sin pareja y de la maternidad adolescente con permanencia en el hogar de la familia, y se evalúa el efecto de dicha permanencia sobre indicadores socioeconómicos de la madre y el bebé en comparación con la maternidad adolescente tradicional (con formación de nuevo hogar).

Background: Growing economic uncertainty has become an intrinsic characteristic of contemporary globalized societies in which an increasing number of people are moving in and out of jobs that may give little meaning to their lives. Among other things, economic uncertainty may affect union formation practices. Objective: In this study we address the relationship between employment uncertainty and union formation in Italy. The country typifies a unique case-study in light of its familistic organization, but remains largely under-studied in this respect. Methods: We adopt a mixed-method approach. The qualitative analysis - conducted with focus group techniques - provided an in-depth understanding into the mechanisms of how job precariousness may affect individual perceptions and beliefs on union formation in Italy. The quantitative analysis - conducted through event-history techniques - verified how strong these mechanisms are at the population level. Results: The qualitative exploration allows us to advance the hypothesis - new for the Italian setting - that labor market uncertainty favors cohabitation while employment stability facilitates marriage. The subsequent quantitative analysis provided strong support for this hypothesis for the female population. For men, the largest contrast was found between any work and no work. Contribution: Our findings support the idea that in Italy cohabitation - in contrast to marriage - is more compatible with employment uncertainties of today's labor market. These reflections are valid for women and employed men: When faced with uncertain prospects, they seem to prefer cohabitation to marriage in the light of its more uncertain nature. Alternatively, they might decide to postpone marriage until their outlook on life is more optimistic.

América Latina destaca mundialmente por sus índices de fecundidad adolescente (tasa específica del grupo de 15 a 19 años de edad) elevados, resistentes a bajar y muy desiguales socioeconómicamente. Chile no escapa a este patrón, aunque la falta de información y análisis especializados han impedido documentar detallada y oportunamente su panorama. Este trabajo ratifica que esta fecundidad ha descendido mucho menos que la de otras edades y que es, por lejos, la más desigual en términos socioeconómicos. También revela un gran cambio del perfil educativo de las madres adolescentes, actualmente en su mayoría estudiantes de educación media. Con datos de la Encuesta Nacional de Juventud de 2009 (ENAJU 2009), se ratifica que el acceso diferencial a anticonceptivos es el principal condicionante de esta desigualdad, lo que se expresa en elevados índices de fecundidad no deseada entre las adolescentes pobres. Se concluye que una política pública de salud sexual y reproductiva robusta, realista y multisectorial (salud y educación al menos), específicamente dirigida a los adolescentes, es clave.

América Latina destaca mundialmente por sus índices de fecundidad adolescente (tasa especí- fica del grupo de 15 a 19 años de edad) elevados, resistentes a bajar y muy desiguales socioeconó- micamente. Chile no escapa a este patrón, aunque la falta de información y análisis especializados han impedido documentar detallada y oportunamente su panorama. Este trabajo ratifica que esta fecundidad ha descendido mucho menos que la de otras edades y que es, por lejos, la más desigual en términos socioeconómicos. También revela un gran cambio del perfil educativo de las madres adolescentes, actualmente en su mayoría estudiantes de educación media. Con datos de la Encuesta Nacional de Juventud de 2009 (enaju 2009), se ratifica que el acceso diferencial a anticonceptivos es el principal condicionante de esta desigualdad, lo que se expresa en elevados índices de fecundidad no deseada entre las adolescentes pobres. Se concluye que una política pública de salud sexual y reproductiva robusta, realista y multisectorial (salud y educación al menos), específicamente dirigida a los adolescentes, es clave.

América Latina es la región más urbanizada del mundo en desarrollo. Esto ha facilitado avances en algunos indicadores sociales, pero no se ha asociado con un proceso de desarrollo económico sostenido ni con un abatimiento de la pobreza y la desigualdad. Por ello, la región enfrenta complejos desafíos para manejar la urbanización que proseguirá y para reducir el pertinaz rezago socioeconómico en el campo. Si bien la migración masiva del campo a la ciudad es el factor demográfico que explica la urbanización, en la actualidad la corriente predominante es la urbana-urbana y la que emerge en términos de cuantía e impacto es la intrametropolitana. Basándose en evidencia censal de algunos países latinoamericanos clave, este artículo proporciona evidencias de algunos de estos fenómenos y llama la atención acerca de algunos de los desafíos en torno a medición, análisis y política pública que la localización y movilidad de la población conllevan.

América Latina es la región más urbanizada del mundo en desarrollo. Esto ha facilitado avances en algunos indicadores sociales, pero no se ha asociado con un proceso de desarrollo económico sostenido ni con un abatimiento de la pobreza y la desigualdad. Por ello, la región enfrenta complejos desafíos para manejar la urbanización que proseguirá y para reducir el pertinaz rezago socioeconómico en el campo. Si bien la migración masiva del campo a la ciudad es el factor demográfico que explica la urbanización, en la actualidad la corriente predominante es la urbana-urbana y la que emerge en términos de cuantía e impacto es la intrametropolitana. Basándose en evidencia censal de algunos países latinoamericanos clave, este artículo proporciona evidencias de algunos de estos fenómenos y llama la atención acerca de algunos de los desafíos en torno a medición, análisis y política pública que la localización y movilidad de la población conllevan.

Usando microdatos censales, varias hipótesis (algunas de ellas convencionales y otras más bien emergentes) relacionadas con el comportamiento migratorio interno de los y las jóvenes se discuten y examinan empíricamente. Los resultados indican que los niveles y patrones de la migración interna entre los jóvenes latinoamericanos aún están marcados por una mayor intensidad que las otras edades, al menos en la migración entre Divisiones Administrativas Mayores, y por una sostenida emigración desde el campo, donde parece haber escasas oportunidades para las y los jóvenes. Como contrapartida, los jóvenes son el único grupo de edad que aún es atraído por las grandes ciudades, y esta atracción es segmentada, pues obedece a búsqueda de trabajo (siendo aún importante el nicho del empleo doméstico para las jóvenes pobres) para algunos (en general de estratos socioeconómicos bajos) y a búsqueda de educación para otros (en general, de estratos socioeconómicos medios y altos); de hecho esto último se ha consolidado como factor y generar endogeneidad en la sistemática relación positiva encontrada entre nivel educativo y probabilidad de migrar.

Background: Italy is customarily viewed as a traditional Catholic country. At the same time, couples are increasingly living together without marrying. Establishing links between religion and family formation is a complex issue and little is known about specific mechanisms through which religion shapes family change in the country. Objective: We aim to shed light on which aspects of religion are important in decisions about family formation. Methods: We analyze data from eight focus group interviews conducted in Florence. In the transcripts we identify any references to religion and systematically compare categories to investigate how religiosity intertwines with relationship choices. We apply bottom-up coding procedures to identify meaning and concepts within three theoretically relevant areas: Catholic precepts, social pressure, and tradition. Results: Despite the predominance of religion in the studied setting, Italians behave without according much importance to Catholic precepts and dogmas. Religion seems to influence people's family behaviors through social pressures to marry generated by the family of origin and the judgment of 'others'. Tradition also plays an important role. Conclusions: The widely prevailing pressure of parents and peers and the hedonistic aspects of the traditional Church wedding seem to be more important in partnership formation than Catholic prescripts. Thus, we posit that the direct effect of religion on individual choices is overestimated when interpreting the Italian family. In addition, we note the divergence that exists between the lack of state laws concerning consensual unions and the acceptance of cohabitation on an individual basis.

Background: Across the industrialized world, more couples are living together without marrying. Although researchers have compared cohabitation cross-nationally using quantitative data, few have compared union formation using qualitative data. Objective: We use focus group research to compare social norms of cohabitation and marriage in Australia and nine countries in Europe. We explore questions such as: what is the meaning of cohabitation? To what extent is cohabitation indistinguishable from marriage, a prelude to marriage, or an alternative to being single? Are the meanings of cohabitation similar across countries? Methods: Collaborators conducted seven to eight focus groups in each country using a standardized guideline. They analyzed the discussions with bottom-up coding in each thematic area. They then collated the data in a standardized report. The first and second authors systematically analyzed the reports, with direct input from collaborators. Results: The results describe a specific picture of union formation in each country. However, three themes emerge in all focus groups: commitment, testing, and freedom. The pervasiveness of these concepts suggests that marriage and cohabitation have distinct meanings, with marriage representing a stronger level of commitment. Cohabitation is a way to test the relationship, and represents freedom. Nonetheless, other discourses emerged, suggesting that cohabitation has multiple meanings. Conclusions: This study illuminates how context shapes partnership formation, but also presents underlying reasons for the development of cohabitation. We find that the increase in cohabitation has not devalued the concept of marriage, but has become a way to preserve marriage as an ideal for long-term commitment.

We examine the likelihood of becoming a parent in Italy taking into account the employment (in)stability of both partners in a couple. We use data from four waves of the Italian section of the EU-SILC (Statistics on Income and Living Condition), 2004-2007, accounting for its longitudinal nature. Overall, our results suggest that Italian couples are neither fully traditional nor entirely modern: the "first pillar" (i.e., a male partner with a stable and well-paid job) is still crucial in directing fertility decisions, because, in our interpretation, it gives the household a feeling of (relative) economic security. But this "old" family typology is becoming rare. Increasingly, both partners are employed, and in this case the characteristics of their employment prove important. A permanent occupation for both partners is associated with higher fertility, while alternative job typologies for either of the two depress fertility.

We study women's and men's marital disruption in Italy between 1970 and 2003. By applying an event-history analysis to the 2003 Italian variant of the Generations and Gender Survey we found that the spread of marital disruption started among middle-highly educated women. Then in recent years it appears that less educated women have also been able to dissolve their unhappy unions. Overall we can see the beginning of a reversed educational gradient from positive to negative. In contrast the trend in men's marital disruption risk appears as a change over time common to all educational groups, although with persisting educational differentials.

Most of our knowledge on divorce pertains to the USA and northern Europe, while demographic studies from southern Europe are relatively scarce. Our study looks at this knowledge gap through an analysis of the correlates of marital instability in Italy. We use the 2003 Italian Gender and Generation Survey, which reveals recent trends in marital disruption, including those among relatively young cohorts, and we employ event history techniques. Our results show that besides the expected correlation between marital disruption and the women's birth cohort and socio-economic status, other factors more closely linked to specific aspects of Italian society can also be identified.

This work focuses on Egypt, a country that notwithstanding its advanced stage of socio-demographic transition has shown near stagnation in the reduction of fertility levels in the last decade. The progression from second to third birth is a crucial component in fertility change, since the reduction especially of third and higher-order births maintains the fertility decline. For this reason, the study aims at analyzing the main determinants of the third-birth intensities of Egyptian two-child mothers, applying an event-history analysis to the 2000 Egyptian Demographic and Health Survey. The study's results show that fertility differentials among the country's social groups continue to persist. Moreover, the difficult change in the fertility of women with high educational standards seems to be responsible for the stalling fertility decline during recent years. The analysis, however, has demonstrated that within the framework of the ongoing process of modernization in the country, even the most laggard groups of women showed a decrease in third-birth intensity during the 1990s. The study also reveals that the preference for at least one son in the family on the progression to the third child is weakening among women who have completed secondary education.