Conference Agenda

Personality plays an essential role with respect to important life outcomes such as education or career success. Although these outcomes are linked with family formation processes, the association between personality and family formation (dissolution) has been underexplored in demographic research. My study contributes to existing research by examining the prospective association between two personality facets (social maturity (SM), and emotional stability (ES)) and family formation and dissolution processes, i.e. 1) marital status, 2) fertility, and 3) partnership dissolution as both a) divorce and b) cohabitation dissolution, based on large Swedish register data. Poisson regression, Linear Probability, and Cox proportional hazard models were applied for different outcomes. My findings suggest that males with high scores on SM and ES measured at age of assignment to military service (17-20 years) are more likely to get married by age 39 and higher. Regarding fertility, SM and ES reveal positive associations with offspring counts and negative associations with the probability of remaining childless by age 39 and higher. Relationship dissolution is negatively linked with SM and ES, in particular among the lowest personality scores. Further analyses using sibling comparisons support these findings.

Recent work has demonstrated the impact of first union dynamics, both formations and dissolutions, on population composition in low fertility contexts. In light of the potential importance of first union dynamics in contexts where it is becoming more urgent to understand the underlying drivers of population change, we examine the nexus between union dynamics and immigration in Finland, a country with a relatively new immigration regime and low cohort fertility projected to continue declining.

Using a survival analysis framework and complete Finnish register data on all women aged 18-65 registered as residents in the country spanning 1987-2020, we compare the heterosexual union dynamic patterns among immigrants and their descendants, by identifying which characteristics, such as education and region of origin, moderate first union (cohabitations and marriages) formations and dissolutions. We distinguish between 1st generation immigrants, 2nd generation immigrants (those with two 1st generation parents), and the 2.5 generation (those with one Finnish and one 1st generation parent).

Preliminary work suggests that women in the 2nd and 2.5 generation were overall less likely to enter a first union compared to native Finnish women, and that among the available couple immigrant pairing typologies, couples made of two 1st generation immigrants show the lowest rate of first union dissolution at 44.76%, while couples made up of two 2nd generation immigrants show the highest rate of first union dissolution at 71.40%. Studying these union dynamic patterns offers insights into how subsequent generations in Finland will form, continue in, and dissolve unions.

This study examines the dynamic interplay of parental partnership transitions and mental health outcomes among mothers and fathers, utilizing Finnish register data. Following both parents within a family over their firstborn child’s childhood, we employ random effects linear probability models to analyze various transition scenarios following parental separation.

The analysis spans from one year before to four years after each transition, offering a detailed exploration of maternal and paternal mental health trajectories. Moving beyond individual outcomes, we investigate the interconnected nature of family dynamics, specifically examining how parental partnership transitions influence the mental health outcomes of both mothers and fathers. Exploring whether transitions, such as mothers or fathers repartnering, affect the mental health of the other parent, even when their own partnership status remains unchanged, contributes to a deeper understanding of reciprocal effects within parent dyads.

Preliminary results indicate that overall, mothers experience poorer mental health compared to fathers. Repartnering immediately after separation or following a period of singlehood leads to short-term improvements in mental health, but levels eventually adjust to previous states for both mothers and fathers. Notably, repartnering of both mothers and fathers positively influences the mental health of the other separated parent, even when their partnership status remains unchanged. Moreover, parental reconciliation improves the mental health of both mothers and fathers.

These findings suggest that after a separation, parents remain closely connected, and partnership transitions of the ex-partner influence their own mental health. One explanation for this could be that, in the sense of the linked lives concept, separated parents remain highly dependent on each other, possibly through shared parenting responsibilities or the child’s well-being. Furthermore, the preliminary findings not only advance the understanding of reciprocal effects within parent dyads but also the general understanding of the association of parental separation, repartnering, and reconciliation with mental health.

Individuals who experience divorce in childhood are more likely to divorce themselves as adults. Notably, the magnitude of the intergenerational divorce transmission is stronger for groups among whom divorce is rare. This transmission may reflect differences in family behaviours passed on from parent to child, or stem from differences in social norms between sub-groups. Sociologists and demographers have struggled to disentangle socioeconomic factors and norms, because groups that are less wealthy tend to have higher divorce rates. Here we use data from Finland, where two native ethnolinguistic groups with comparable socioeconomic characteristics – but different divorce risks – live side by side; Swedish speakers and Finnish speakers (5% and 90% of the population, respectively). Using register data on the entire population from 1987 onwards, we examine separation risk as a function of parental divorce (couples n= 554,337, separations n= 309,676, total years at risk 4,890,095). Cox regressions demonstrate that risk of separation is higher for couples where both sets of parents had divorce than if only one set of parents had divorced, adjusted for a range of demographic and socioeconomic covariates. Moreover, the intergenerational transmission is greater among Swedish speakers, who have an overall lower separation rate. These group differences in separation risk persist even after controlling for socioeconomic factors and each partner’s experience of parental divorce. Notably, Finnish-speaking couples who reside in Swedish-dominated areas have both somewhat lower separation risk, and higher intergenerational transmission than their peers in Finnish-dominated areas. These results point to a social transmission of separation, over and above socioeconomic causes. The role of geographic (im)mobility of the Swedish-speaking minority, social cohesion and partner markets are discussed.