Variations in Stepfamily Fertility Related to Coresidence with Woman's or Man's Pre-Union Children: A Comparative Analysis of Fertility and Family Survey Data of Finland and Austria

Andres Vikat, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
Elizabeth Thomson, University of Wisconsin at Madison

Earlier studies have shown that children born before a union influence a couple's fertility. We hypothesize that the woman's pre-union children and coresident children of either partner influence couple's childbearing behavior more than children of the man and nonresident children of either partner, because the couple is more involved in rearing the former. We use data of the Fertility and Family Surveys in Finland and Austria. They represent different regimes in provisions for childcare and gender equality. We use aML software to estimate hazard regression models of the risk of a conception that leads to a live birth. In Finland nonresident children and the man's children both have an effect on the couple's fertility, and only in certain parity configurations are these effects smaller than those of coresident children and the woman's children, respectively. In Austria the role of nonresident children in explaining a couple's fertility is weak.

Presented in Session 113: Differential Fertility