Online Seminar Talk

The Prospective Association Between Personality Factors and Family Formation Processes Among Males in Sweden. Evidence from Register Data

Steffen Peters
Laboratory of Fertility and Well-Being, October 04, 2022

Steffen Peters from the Laboratory of Fertility and Well-Being examines the association between personality and family formation.

Abstract

Personality plays an essential role with respect to important life outcomes such as education or career success. Although these outcomes are linked with family formation processes, the association between personality and family formation has been underexplored in demographic research. Steffen Peter's study contributes to existing research by examining the prospective association between two personality facets (social maturity (SM), and emotional stability (ES)) and family formation and dissolution processes, i.e.

1. marital status,
2. partnership dissolution as both
   1.  divorce and
   2. cohabitation dissolution,
3.  fertility based on large Swedish register data.

Poisson regression, Linear Probability, and Cox proportional hazard models were applied for different outcomes. His findings suggest that males with high scores on SM and ES measured at age of assignment to military service (17-20 years) are more likely to get married by age 39 and higher. Relationship dissolution is linked with SM via a U-shape pattern, i.e. highest and lowest scores on this trait are associated with higher separation risks. Regarding fertility, SM and ES reveal positive associations with offspring counts and negative associations with the probability of remaining childless by age 39 and higher. Further analyses based on Fixed Effects models support these findings even when considering comparisons between brothers.

Register to Take Part

You would like to attend the Online Seminar Talk? You are very welcome. Please register by writing an e-mail to office-myrskyla@demogr.mpg.de.

Online Seminar Talk, October, 4th from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. (Rostock time)