MPIDR Working Paper
Differences in family policy and the intergenerational transmission of divorce: a comparison between the former East and West Germany
Engelhardt, H., Trappe, H., Dronkers, J.
MPIDR Working Paper WP-2002-008
Rostock, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (February 2002)
Also published in: Demographic Research 6, 295-324 (2002). Internet: http://www.demographic-research.org/Volumes/Vol6/11/6-11.pd
Abstract
The intergenerational transmission of the risk of divorce is a well-known long-term effect of
divorce that has been found in many Western societies. Less known is the extent to which
different family policies and divorce laws have an effect on the intergenerational transmission
of divorce. In this paper, the division of Germany into two separate states from 1949 until
1990, with the consequent development of two very different family policies, is regarded as
a natural experiment that enables us to investigate the effect of family policy on the
mechanisms underlying the social inheritance of divorce. Data from respondents from the
former East and West Germany participating in the German Life History Study are analyzed,
using multivariate event-history methods. The results indicate that the strength of the
intergenerational divorce transmission, when adjusted for differences in the divorce level, was
lower in the East than in the West. Differences in marriage age and the timing of first birth,
which are partial indicators of family policy, as well as differences in religion, could explain
this effect. Furthermore, we found a tendency towards a reduction in the dynamics of divorce
transmission over time, both in East and West Germany.