Diversity in Family Formation

by Beer, Joop De; Deven, Fred; De Beer, Joop

• ISBN13: 9780792364610
• ISBN10: 0792364619
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-10-01
• Publisher: Kluwer Academic Pub

Summary

The aim of Diversity in Family Formation is to examine changes in the start of the family formation process. Rather than giving a rough overview of demographic changes in many countries, a comparison of differences in changes in family formation and fertility behaviour between Belgium and The Netherlands is interesting for various reasons. First, even though the economic and cultural differences between these countries are relatively small there is one important difference: Belgium is predominantly Catholic, whereas The Netherlands has about equal proportions of Catholics and Protestants. Second, if the Second Demographic Transition implies that there is one common pattern of change in different European countries and that differences across countries are due to the fact that countries are in a different stage of the transition process, and if it is assumed that the transition process started earlier in Protestant countries than in Catholic countries, one would expect The Netherlands to be in a further stage of the transition process than Belgium. Thus an in-depth comparison of changes in family formation and fertility behaviour between both countries may give us more insight in the question of whether there is one common transition process. The comparison of fertility and family survey-data in both countries brings us to the core question of whether there is one common explanation for differences between countries in various types of fertility and family behaviour under consideration, namely fertility regulation, the choice of living arrangement after leaving the parental home, and the labour force participation of mothers.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
List of Tables	xi
List of Figures	xiii
General introduction	1	(10)
de Beer
Deven
Introduction	1	(3)
Demographic trends	4	(1)
Fertility and family surveys	5	(1)
Summary of this volume	6	(5)
Fertility regulation	11	(22)
de Graaf
Lodewijckx
Introduction	11	(1)
Changes in fertility	12	(4)
Method of birth control	16	(8)
Birth control in the early 1990s	16	(2)
Changes during the 1980s	18	(2)
Sterilisation	20	(4)
Differences in contraceptive use	24	(1)
Abortion	25	(4)
Summary and conclusions	29	(4)
The choice of living arrangement after leaving the parental home	33	(26)
Corijn
Manting
Introduction	33	(1)
Theoretical background	34	(4)
Method and data manipulation	38	(3)
Patterns of leaving home: results	41	(13)
Summary and conclusions	54	(5)
Fertility	59	(30)
de Jong
Lodewijckx
Introduction	59	(1)
Developments in fertility	60	(4)
Data and method	64	(2)
Childlessness	66	(6)
Fertility of all women	72	(6)
Fertility of mothers	78	(4)
Summary and discussion	82	(7)
Labour force participation of mothers	89	(26)
Callens
van Hoorn
de Jong
Introduction	89	(1)
Context	89	(9)
Labour force participation in a historical perspective	89	(3)
Part-time labour	92	(4)
The welfare state: childcare	96	(2)
Theory	98	(2)
Economic theories and the role of education	98	(1)
Explanatory variables	99	(1)
Data collection and analysis techniques	100	(1)
Results	101	(9)
Working before the first child is born	101	(1)
Working after the birth of the first child	101	(4)
Working after the birth of the second child	105	(2)
Working after the birth of a third child	107	(1)
Main factors: education and parity	107	(3)
Conclusions	110	(5)
Summary and discussion	115	(16)
de Beer
Corijn
Deven
Summing up: the position of the Netherlands and Belgium in a demographic transition process	117	(6)
Contraceptive behaviour	118	(1)
Choice of living arrangement after leaving the parental home	119	(2)
Fertility	121	(1)
Female labour force participation	122	(1)
General discussion	123	(8)
Technical appendix	131	(7)
de Graaf
Lodewijckx
Introduction	131	(1)
The Belgian survey (NEGO-V)	131	(5)
The Dutch survey (OG'93)	136	(2)
Note on the use of MCA	138