Variation in the Intersection between Partnership and Fertility: A Comparison across Three Cohorts in 16 Countries

Mark J. Lyons-Amos, Institute of Education
Brienna Perelli-Harris, University of Southampton

The intersection between fertility and partnership is increasingly complicated. This is due to increasing variety in partnership forms, diversity in childbearing patterns, as well as the changing relationship between these processes. This paper uses Latent Class Growth Models to evaluate the relationship between partnership and fertility across the US and Europe. The main aims are to establish how the association between partnership patterns and the timing of births varies between countries and across birth cohorts. We analyze retrospective union and fertility histories from the Harmonized Histories database and selecting women age 15-45. Results suggest that the relationship between partnership and birth timing have shifted. However, the nature of this shift varies by country reflecting heterogeneous evolution of partnership-fertility interaction.