A Retreat from Parenthood within Partnerships: An Emerging Trend in Northern Europe

Leen Rahnu, University of Tallinn

This study investigates the association between partnership formation and parenthood in Sweden, Finland, Norway, and Estonia among native women born from the 1960s to the early 1990s. Employing event-history methodology and the GGS2020 data, piecewise constant regression models are estimated to study: (1) the formation of the first partnership (marital or non-marital) among women with no biological children and (2) events following partnership formation – the birth of a first child or separation. Preliminary insights suggest that a retreat from parenthood within partnerships seems to be a common tendency in the Nordic region. We argue that although the observed retreat from parenthood within partnerships may be an unintended consequence of changing age norms, this phenomenon could pose a limitation to fertility recovery in the coming decades, particularly among lower SES groups for whom delayed childbearing does not translate into improved labor market positions.

Keywords: Fertility, Families, Unions and Households, Comparative methods

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