Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Interrelationships Between Childbearing and Housing Transitions in the Family Life Course

  • Published:
Demography

Abstract

Research has examined the effect of family changes on housing transitions and childbearing patterns within various housing types. Although most research has investigated how an event in one domain of family life depends on the current state in another domain, the interplay between them has been little studied. This study examines the interrelationships between childbearing decisions and housing transitions. We use rich longitudinal register data from Finland and apply multilevel event history analysis to allow for multiple births and housing changes over the life course. We investigate the timing of fertility decisions and housing choices with respect to each other. We model childbearing and housing transitions jointly to control for time-invariant unobserved characteristics of women, which may simultaneously influence their fertility behavior and housing choices, and we show how joint modeling leads to a deeper understanding of the interplay between the two domains of family life.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. The data contain information only on the timing of births and housing changes rather than when decisions to have a(nother) child or move home were taken. (See details of the specification of the outcome variables in the Data and Methods sections.) Nevertheless, for readability and in common with much other research using event history data, we use “decision” and “choice” interchangeably with “behavior” and “change” in this and the next section.

  2. We excluded foreign-born women for two reasons. First, immigrants in Finland are a relatively small but heterogeneous group (refugees, married migrants, and “ethnic return migrants”). Second, immigrants are known to exhibit specific fertility patterns after migration (e.g., elevated fertility for married migrants; see Andersson 2004). Although the fertility patterns of immigrants provide valuable information about the relationship between international migration and fertility, the inclusion of foreign-born women in the study would have further complicated the analysis of the relationship between fertility and housing; additional control of duration and selectivity effects would have been necessary.

References

  • Andersson, G. (2004). Childbearing after migration: Fertility patterns of foreign-born women in Sweden. International Migration Review, 38, 364–392.

    Google Scholar 

  • Box-Steffensmeier, J. M., & Jones, B. S. (2004). Event history modelling: A guide for social scientists. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Brien, M., Lillard, L., & Waite, L. (1999). Inter-related family building behaviors: Cohabitation, marriage, and nonmarital conception. Demography, 36, 535–551.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, W. A. V. (2012). Do women delay family formation in expensive housing markets? Demographic Research, 27(article 1), 1–24. doi:10.4054/DemRes.2012.27.1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, W. A. V., & Davies Withers, S. (2009). Fertility, mobility and labour-force-participation: A study of synchronicity. Population, Space and Place, 15, 305–321.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, W. A. V., & Huang, Y. (2003). The life course and residential mobility in British housing markets. Environmental and Planning A, 35, 323–339.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davies Withers, S. (1998). Linking household transitions and housing transitions: A longitudinal analysis of renters. Environment and Planning A, 30, 615–630.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deurloo, M. C., Clark, W. A. V., & Dieleman, F. M. (1994). The move to housing ownership in temporal and regional contexts. Environment and Planning A, 26, 1659–1670.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Enström Öst, C. (2012). Housing and children: Simultaneous decisions? A cohort study of young adults’ housing and family formation decisions. Journal of Population Economics, 25, 349–366.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feijten, P., & Mulder, C. H. (2002). The timing of household events and housing events in the Netherlands: A longitudinal perspective. Housing Studies, 17, 773–792.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hakim, C. (2000). Work-lifestyle choices in the 21st century: Preference theory. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoem, J. M., & Kreyenfeld, M. (2006). Anticipatory analysis and its alternatives in life-course research. Part 2: Two interacting processes. Demographic Research, 15(article 17), 485–498. doi:10.4054/DemRes.2006.15.17

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jalovaara, M. (2011, September). A study on union dissolution in Finland. Paper presented at the workshop on Register-based Demographic Research, University of Stockholm.

  • Kostelecky, T., & Vobecka, J. (2009). Housing affordability in Czech regions and demographic behaviour: Does housing affordability impact fertility? Czech Sociological Review, 45, 1191–1213.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kulu, H. (2005). Migration and fertility: Competing hypotheses re-examined. European Journal of Population, 21, 51–87.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kulu, H. (2006). Fertility of internal migrants: Comparison between Austria and Poland. Population, Space and Place, 12, 147–170.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kulu, H. (2008). Fertility and spatial mobility in the life course: Evidence from Austria. Environment and Planning A, 40, 632–652.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kulu, H. (2012). Why do fertility levels vary between urban and rural areas? Regional Studies, 46. doi:10.1080/00343404.2011.581276

  • Kulu, H., Boyle, P. J., & Andersson, G. (2009). High suburban fertility: Evidence from four Northern European countries. Demographic Research, 21(article 31), 915–944. doi:10.4054/DemRes.2009.21.31

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kulu, H., & Vikat, A. (2007). Fertility differences by housing type: The effect of housing conditions or of selective moves? Demographic Research, 17(article 26), 775–802. doi:10.4054/DemRes.2007.17.26

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lillard, L. A. (1993). Simultaneous equations for hazards: Marriage duration and fertility timing. Journal of Econometrics, 56, 189–217.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lillard, L. A., Brien, M. J., & Waite, L. J. (1995). Premarital cohabitation and subsequent marital dissolution: A matter of self-selection? Demography, 32, 437–457.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lillard, L. A., & Panis, C. W. A. (2003). aML multilevel multiprocess statistical software, version 2.0. Los Angeles, CA: EconWare.

    Google Scholar 

  • Long, L. H. (1972). The influence of number and ages of children on residential mobility. Demography, 9, 371–382.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malmberg, B. (2010). Low fertility and the housing market: Evidence from Swedish regional data. European Journal of Population, 26, 229–244.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Michielin, F., & Mulder, C. H. (2008). Family events and the residential mobility of couples. Environment and Planning A, 40, 2770–2790.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mulder, C. H. (2006). Population and housing: A two-sided relationship. Demographic Research, 15(article 13), 401–412. doi:10.4054/DemRes.2006.15.13

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mulder, C. H., & Billari, F. C. (2010). Homeownership regimes and low fertility. Housing Studies, 25, 527–541.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mulder, C. H., & Wagner, M. (1998). First-time home-ownership in the family life course: A West German-Dutch comparison. Urban Studies, 35, 687–713.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mulder, C. H., & Wagner, M. (2001). The connections between family formation and first-time home ownership in the context of West Germany and the Netherlands. European Journal of Population, 17, 137–164.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, M. J. (1984). The influence of fertility, early housing-career, and socio-economic factors on tenure determination in contemporary Britain. Environment and Planning A, 16, 1303–1318.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, M. J., & Sullivan, O. (1985). Housing tenure and family formation in contemporary Britain. European Journal of Population, 1, 230–243.

    Google Scholar 

  • Myers, D., & Ryu, S. (2008). Aging baby boomers and the generational housing bubble foresight and mitigation of an epic transition. Journal of the American Planning Association, 74, 17–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rabe, B., & Taylor, M. (2010). Residential mobility, quality of neighbourhood and life course events. Journal of Royal Statistical Society A, 173, 531–555.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rossi, P. (1955). Why families move. Glencoe, IL: The Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simon, C. J., & Tamura, R. (2009). Do higher rents discourage fertility? Evidence from U.S. cities, 1940–2000. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 39, 33–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Statistics Finland. (2010). Official statistics of Finland: Quality description, migration 2010 [online publication]. Helsinki: Statistics Finland. Retrieved from http://www.stat.fi/til/muutl/2011/muutl_2011_2012-04-27_laa_001_en.html

  • Statistics Finland. (2012a). Fertility [data file]. Helsinki: Statistics Finland. Retrieved from http://pxweb2.stat.fi/database/StatFin/vrm/synt/synt_fi.asp

  • Statistics Finland. (2012b). Housing conditions [data file]. Helsinki: Statistics Finland. Retrieved from http://pxweb2.stat.fi/database/StatFin/asu/asas/asas_fi.asp

  • Statistics Finland. (2012c). Housing costs [data file]. Helsinki: Statistics Finland. Retrieved from http://pxweb2.stat.fi/database/StatFin/asu/ashi/ashi_fi.asp

  • Steele, F., Kallis, C., Goldstein, H., & Joshi, H. (2005). The relationship between childbearing and transitions from marriage and cohabitation in Britain. Demography, 42, 647–673.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steele, F., Kallis, C., & Joshi, H. (2006). The formation and outcomes of cohabiting and marital partnerships in early adulthood: The role of previous partnership experience. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society A, 169, 757–779.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ström, S. (2010). Housing and first births in Sweden, 1972–2005. Housing Studies, 25, 509–526.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Upchurch, D. M., Lillard, L. A., & Panis, C. W. A. (2002). Nonmarital childbearing: Influences of education, marriage, and fertility. Demography, 39, 311–329.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vikat, A. (2002). Fertility in Finland in the 1980s and 1990s: Analysis of fertility trend by age and parity. Yearbook of Population Research in Finland, 38, 159–178.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vikat, A. (2004). Women’s labor force attachment and childbearing in Finland. Demographic Research, Special Collection 3(article 8), 177–212. doi:10.4054/DemRes.0.S8.3

  • Washbrook, E., Clarke, P., & Steele, F. (2012, September). Investigating non-ignorable drop-out in panel studies of residential mobility. Paper presented at the annual conference of the Royal Statistical Society, Telford, UK.

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to three anonymous referees for valuable comments and suggestions on a previous version of this article. The authors also thank Dr Andres Vikat for preparing a command file for the calculation of earnings in the Finnish context. The authors express their gratitude to Statistics Finland for providing the register data used in this study; and to Mrs. Marianne Johnson for valuable suggestions when preparing the data order. The analyses made in this study are based on the Statistics Finland Register Data at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (TK-53-1662-05). The study was supported by a research grant from the Economic and Social Research Council (RES-062-23-2265).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Roxby Building, Liverpool, L69 7ZT, UK

    Hill Kulu

  2. Centre for Multilevel Modelling, Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol, 2 Priory Road, Bristol, BS8 1TX, UK

    Fiona Steele

Authors
  1. Hill Kulu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Fiona Steele
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hill Kulu.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

ESM 1

(PDF 366 KB)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Kulu, H., Steele, F. Interrelationships Between Childbearing and Housing Transitions in the Family Life Course. Demography 50, 1687–1714 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-013-0216-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-013-0216-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation