Arbeitsbereich

Fertilität und Wohlbefinden

Auf einen Blick Projekte Publikationen Team

Projekt

Family Formation in Comparative Perspective

Ewa Batyra, Andres Castro, Mikko Myrskylä, Julia Hellstrand, Jessica Nisén; in Zusammenarbeit mit Hans-Peter Kohler (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Vereinigte Staaten)

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Family formation processes and structures are central features of human societies and are highly relevant for understanding fertility trends, inequality, and intergenerational transmission. These processes are shaped by socioeconomic, demographic, and cultural development, and in turn influence broader patterns of societal change and population health.

This project strengthens a global and comparative perspective on continuity and transformation in family formation patterns through systematic cross-national analyses. Research has examined variation in union formation, union instability, and repartnering across diverse contexts in Europe, Latin America, and low-income countries. Particular attention has been paid to how partnership trajectories relate to completed fertility, how parental age structures evolve over time, and how institutional and policy contexts shape early and later family transitions.

A further strand focuses on maternal age and multiple births in low-income countries. Analyses based on large-scale demographic survey data document how maternal age patterns are associated with infant and neonatal outcomes and project future changes in twinning rates in response to population growth and shifts in age structures.

The project also advances conceptual and methodological approaches to the study of family demography and contributes to comparative research infrastructure by developing new analytical frameworks and novel data resources that extend beyond the nuclear family and enable the study of complex kinship systems across societies.

Publikationen

Baudisch, A.; Polizzi, A.:

Fertility, birth, reproduction: connecting formal demographic frameworks

Population Studies 80:2, 199–213. (2026)    

Dierker, P.; Skirbekk, V. F.:

Grandparenthood related to reduced risk of gray divorce: evidence from 15 countries

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2026-015. (2026)    

Jalovaara, M.; Nisén, J.; Lammi-Taskula, J.:

How can the Nordic welfare state respond to demographic change?

In: Beyond the Nordic welfare state: extending social investments with interventions, 121–141. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. (2026)    

Nisén, J.; Dahlberg, J.; Slabá, J.; Trimarchi, A.:

Gender differences in the timing and chances of parenthood across regions

Population, Space and Place 32:1, e70187–e70187. (2026)    

Schubert, H.-A.; Spoorenberg, T.; Dudel, C.; Skirbekk, V. F.:

Masculinization of populations reverses sex differences in fertility

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 123:17, e2533317123–e2533317123. (2026)    

Wright, K. Q.; Şanlitürk, A. E.; Mann, E. S.:

Ideology over evidence: pronatalist media discourse and its (dis)connection from U.S. fertility trends

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2026-007. (2026)    

Wood, J.; Marynissen, L.; Nisén, J.; Fallesen, P.; Neels, K.; Trimarchi, A.; Dommermuth, L.; Van Gaalen, R.; Kolk, M.; Martikainen, P.:

Regional differentiation in women’s educational gradients in fertility around the turn of the century: urban-rural differences in northern and western Europe

Vienna Yearbook of Population Research 23:2025, 489–514. (2025)    

Batyra, E.; Pesando, L. M.:

Increases in child marriage among the poorest in Mali: 'Reverse policies' or data quality issues?

Population Studies 78:1, 93–111. (2024)    

Lee, D. S.; Barclay, K.:

More twins expected in low-income countries with later maternal ages at birth and population growth

Human Reproduction 40:2, 372–381. (2024)    

Lee, D. S.; Barclay, K.; Magnus, M. C.; Ernst, A.; Myrskylä, M.:

Multiple births mortality by maternal age at birth: a within-family analysis of Demographic and Health Survey data on 42 low-income countries

Stockholm Research Reports in Demography 2024.53, Stockholm. (2024)    

Leopold, T.; Becker, C. C.; Büyükkeçeci, Z.; Çineli, B.; Raab, M.:

KINMATRIX: a new data resource for studies of families and kinship

Demographic Research 51:25, 789–808. (2024)    

Batyra, E.; Leone, T.; Myrskylä, M.:

Forecasting of cohort fertility by educational level in countries with limited data availability: the case of Brazil

Population Studies 77:2, 179–195. (2023)    

Batyra, E.; Pesando, L. M.; Castro Torres, A. F.; Furstenberg, F. F.; Kohler, H.-P.:

Union formation, within-couple dynamics, and child well-being: a global macro-level perspective

Population, Space and Place 29:5, 1–15. (2023)    

Dudel, C.; Cheng, Y. A.; Klüsener, S.:

Shifting parental age differences in high-income countries: insights and implications

Population and Development Review 49:4, 879–908. (2023)    

Fostik, A.; Fernández Soto, M.; Ruiz-Vallejo, F.; Ciganda, D.:

Union instability and fertility: an international perspective

European Journal of Population 39:25, 1–47. (2023)    

Batyra, E.; Kohler, H.-P.:

Unequal transitions to adulthood: widening disparities in age at first union, sex, and birth in many low- and middle-income countries

Studies in Family Planning 53:3, 389–565. (2022)    

Castro Torres, A. F.; Pesando, L. M.; Kohler, H.-P.; Furstenberg, F. F.:

Family change and variation through the lens of family configurations in low- and middle-income countries

Population, Space and Place 28:4, e2531–e2531. (2022)    

Fallesen, P.; Dommermuth, L.; Hellstrand, J.; Simonsen, E.; Loft, L. T. G.; Mortensen, L. H.:

Research note: comparing ideal family size with observed and forecasted completed cohort fertility in Denmark and Norway

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2022-031. (2022)    

Väisänen, H.; Batyra, E.:

The effect of birth intention status on infant mortality: a fixed effects analysis of 60 countries

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2022-032. (2022)    

Batyra, E.; Leone, T.; Myrskylä, M.:

Forecasting of cohort fertility by educational level in countries with limited data availability: the case of Brazil

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2021-011. (2021)    

Batyra, E.; Pesando, L. M.:

Trends in child marriage and new evidence on the selective impact of changes in age-at-marriage laws on early marriage

SSM-Population Health 14:100811, 1–12. (2021)    

Castro Torres, A. F.:

Analysis of Latin American fertility in terms of probable social classes

European Journal of Population 37:2, 297–339. (2021)    

Hellstrand, J.; Nisén, J.; Miranda, V.; Fallesen, P.; Dommermuth, L.; Myrskylä, M.:

Not just later, but fewer: novel trends in cohort fertility in the Nordic countries

Demography 58:4, 1373–1399. (2021)    

Lappegård, T.; Klüsener, S.; Vignoli, D.:

Why are marriage and family formation increasingly disconnected across Europe? A multi-level perspective on existing theories

Population, Space and Place 24:2, e2088–e2088. (2018)    

Szołtysek, M.; Klüsener, S.; Poniat, R.; Gruber, S.:

The Patriarchy Index: a new measure of gender and generational inequalities in the past

Cross-Cultural Research 51:3, 228–262. (2017)    

Szołtysek, M.; Poniat, R.; Klüsener, S.; Gruber, S.:

Family organisation and human capital inequalities in historic Europe: testing the association anew

MPIDR Working Paper WP-2017-012. (2017)