Dissertation

Childbearing and divorce among same-sex and different-sex couples in the Nordic context: a register-based analysis

Abstract

Over the past decades, an increasing number of countries have legally recognized same-sex couples’ family rights, with the Nordic countries among the pioneers of this development. Even though a same-sex couple with children is not a new family form per se, the growing legal and social recognition of these types of families has intensified the need to understand their family dynamics. It is, however, unclear whether the new opportunities to form a family have been equally accessible across socioeconomic groups. Furthermore, the factors underlying higher divorce risk observed among female couples, relative to male couples and different-sex couples, and how premarital cohabitation and childbearing are associated with same-sex divorce remain insufficiently understood. This thesis analyzed, as the first study so far, the likelihood of childbearing within female same-sex legal unions and socioeconomic differences in that likelihood in Finland (substudy I), and the other Nordic countries of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway over time by using harmonized register data (sub-study II). Female couples’ childbearing was studied in comparison with married different-sex couples. The thesis also explored differences in divorce risk between female couples, male couples, and different-sex couples in Finland, with a focus on the roles of the length of premarital cohabitation, prior childbearing, and childbearing together with the current spouse (sub-study III). This was the first time that the role of the length of premarital cohabitation was assessed for same-sex couples using register data. Female couples’ likelihood of having a biological child of either spouse during the first five years of their legal union increased in Finland and the other Nordic countries over time. For instance, Denmark experienced the strongest increase, rising from 2.5% in the first union cohort of 1989 to a peak of 64.1% in the 2012 union cohort. The increases led to a convergence of female couples’ and married different-sex couples’ likelihoods of having children in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway at the turn of the 2000s and 2010s. Finland witnessed a later and somewhat more modest increase, from 13.2% in the first union cohort of 2002 to a peak of 52.7% in the 2015 cohort. In Finland, female couples’ likelihood of childbearing did not reach that of married different-sex couples by the end of 2021. The analyses of childbearing by educational group revealed substantial and growing differences in childbearing among female couples, with a higher level of education associated with a greater likelihood of childbearing across the Nordic countries. In Finland, for instance, educational differences peaked in the 2011–2013 cohort, with the likelihood of childbearing at 4.0% among low-educated couples, 29.6% among medium-educated couples, and 52.1% among highly educated couples. In all the Nordic countries studied, the likelihood of childbearing differed less by income level than by educational level. Female couples had 2.2 times the divorce risk of different-sex couples and 1.6 times that of male couples when adjusted for age, education, and nationality. Short length and absence of premarital cohabitation predicted divorce for same-sex couples, but not for different-sex iv couples. Having prior children was associated with an increased divorce risk, and childbearing together was associated with a decreased divorce risk. However, prior children constituted a smaller risk to union stability in same-sex couples than in different-sex couples, whereas childbearing together did not prevent female couples from divorcing as much as different-sex couples. After adjusting for these, female couples still had 2.1 times the divorce risk of different-sex couples and 1.2 times that of male couples.
This thesis is the first to show that differences in the likelihood of childbearing between female couples and different-sex couples in legal unions have largely disappeared, reflecting how legal and social changes have supported same-sex parenthood in the Nordic countries. Yet, the findings also reveal large socioeconomic differences in childbearing among female couples, raising the question of whether the new opportunities to form a family have been equally accessible to all. Moreover, the results underline the importance of both past relationship experiences and the characteristics of the current union in understanding same-sex union instability. Overall, the thesis highlights that studying family dynamics among same-sex couples across different subgroups and institutional contexts is crucial for understanding how socioeconomic resources and other couple-level characteristics interact with the legal and social environments.