Cohabitation and divorce across nations andgenerations

Parental divorce has been an increasing experience amongst thegenerations of children born since the 1970s in European countries. Thisstudy analyses data on the partnership and parenthood behaviour ofthose children who experienced parental separation during childhoodfor nine Western European nations, as well as Britain and the USA.Across all nations the hallmarks of the adult demographic behaviour ofchildren who experienced parental divorce (compared with those whodid not) are that they are more likely to form partnerships and tobecome parents at a young age; they are more likely to opt forcohabitation over marriage; they are less likely to have their first childwithin marriage; and their own partnerships and marriages are in turnmore likely to terminate. Recently available data from the 1970 cohortwas also used to search for prior factors that might throw light on whythe partnership and parenthood behaviour of children who hadexperienced parental separation might differ from their peers withoutsuch an experience.[...]