Family formation - doing it the parents' way

Parental effects continue to have a strong impact on family formation patterns, even though demographic transitions related to choosing a partner, entering marriage, and deciding in favor or against children have changed substantially in recent years. 75 percent of all children follow a pattern similar to that of their parents, have as many or about as many children, and have their children at a similar age. Anette Fasang and Marcel Raab, two WZB researchers in the project group on Demography and Inequality, studied the patterns of family formation among middle-class American families.

Their most important finding: In addition to these similarities, there are other regular patterns of intergenerational transmission. Under certain conditions—for instance if they didn’t get along well with their parents during puberty—children follow an opposite pattern, choosing to have fewer children or none at all. Besides offering this new finding, the article contributes to current research through its theoretical approach and its innovative methodology.

Anette Fasang, Marcel Raab: Beyond transmission: intergenerational patterns of family formation among middle-class American families. In: Demography, 51(5), 1703-1728