Department of Policy Analysis and Management and Cornell Population Center, Cornell University, MVR 254, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA.
Public Administration and International Affairs, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA.
Demography. 2018 Aug;55(4):1389-1421. doi: 10.1007/s13524-018-0683-6.
Increases in cohabitation, nonmarital childbearing, and partnership dissolution have reshaped the family landscape in most Western countries. The United States shares many features of family change common elsewhere, although it is exceptional in its high degree of union instability. In this study, we use the Harmonized Histories to provide a rich, descriptive account of union instability among couples who have had a child together in the United States and several European countries. First, we compare within-country differences between cohabiting and married parents in education, prior family experiences, and age at first birth. Second, we estimate differences in the stability of cohabiting and married parents, paying attention to transitions into marriage among those cohabiting at birth. Finally, we explore the implications of differences in parents' characteristics for union instability and the magnitude of social class differences in union instability across countries. Although similar factors are associated with union instability across countries, some (prior childbearing, early childbearing) are by far more common in the United States, accounting in part for higher shares separating. The factors associated with union instability-lower education, prior childbearing, early childbearing-also tend to be more tightly packaged in the United States than elsewhere, suggesting greater inequality in resources for children.
同居、非婚生育和伴侣关系解体的增加改变了大多数西方国家的家庭格局。美国在家庭变化方面与其他国家有许多共同特征，但它的婚姻不稳定程度却非常特殊。在这项研究中，我们使用协调历史数据，为在美国和几个欧洲国家生育过子女的夫妇的婚姻不稳定情况提供了丰富的描述性描述。首先，我们比较了同居父母和已婚父母在教育、先前的家庭经历和首次生育年龄方面的国内差异。其次，我们估计了同居父母和已婚父母婚姻稳定性的差异，同时关注那些在生育时就同居的人向婚姻的转变。最后，我们探讨了父母特征差异对婚姻不稳定的影响，以及各国婚姻不稳定的社会阶层差异的大小。尽管各国婚姻不稳定的因素相似，但一些因素（如先前的生育、早育）在美国更为普遍，这在一定程度上导致了更高的离婚率。与婚姻不稳定相关的因素，如受教育程度较低、先前生育、早育，也往往比其他国家更为集中，这表明美国儿童资源不平等的程度更大。
