IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/dem/demres/v47y2022i25.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Changing mind, changing plans? Instability of individual gender attitudes and postponement of marriage in Germany

Author

Listed:
  • Daniele Florean

    (Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main)

Abstract

Background: Numerous studies address the relationship between gender attitudes and family formation, especially the attitudes–fertility connection. To date, little attention has been paid to the longitudinal dynamics of these attitudes, in particular the stability of attitudes over time, and the impact of their stability on marriage. Objective: To investigate how stable or unstable gender attitudes are related to the timing of first transitions to marriage in Germany. Methods: Using event history analysis and data from the PAIRFAM survey, I compare the first transition to marriage in a sample of men and women born between 1981 and 1983 and living in Germany. I generate an index to estimate the stability of gender attitudes over time across a set of four indicators, and use it as the main independent variable to estimate how attitude stability is related to the timing of marriage. Results: Respondents who report frequent changes in gender attitudes enter marriage systematically later than respondents whose attitudes are stable. However, this relationship is weaker for respondents who express more liberal attitudes. Contribution: The findings highlight the importance of a longitudinal approach to the study of gender attitudes and their relationship to life-course events, showing how the stability of attitudes relates to the timing of family formation.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniele Florean, 2022. "Changing mind, changing plans? Instability of individual gender attitudes and postponement of marriage in Germany," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 47(25), pages 777-792.
    • Handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:47:y:2022:i:25
    DOI: 10.4054/DemRes.2022.47.25
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.demographic-research.org/volumes/vol47/25/47-25.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.4054/DemRes.2022.47.25?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ajzen, Icek, 1991. "The theory of planned behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 179-211, December.
    2. Gøsta Esping-Andersen & Francesco C. Billari, 2015. "Re-theorizing Family Demographics," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 41(1), pages 1-31, March.
    3. Martin Kolk, 2019. "Weak support for a U-shaped pattern between societal gender equality and fertility when comparing societies across time," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 40(2), pages 27-48.
    4. Guy Moors, 2003. "Estimating the Reciprocal Effect of Gender Role Attitudes and Family Formation: A Log-linear Path Model with Latent Variables," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 19(2), pages 199-221, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Julia Hellstrand & Jessica Nisén & Mikko Myrskylä, 2022. "Less Partnering, Less Children, or Both? Analysis of the Drivers of First Birth Decline in Finland Since 2010," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 38(2), pages 191-221, May.
    2. Julia Hellstrand & Jessica Nisén & Mikko Myrskylä, 2021. "Less partnering, less children, or both? Analysis of the drivers of first-birth decline in Finland since 2010?," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2021-008, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    3. Jolene Tan, 2022. "Heterogeneity among the never married in a low-fertility context," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 47(24), pages 727-776.
    4. Henrik-Alexander Schubert & Christian Dudel & Marina Kolobova & Mikko Myrskylä, 2023. "Revisiting the J-shape: human development and fertility in the United States," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2023-022, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    5. Nicolò Cavalli, 2020. "Future orientation and fertility: cross-national evidence using Google search," Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, vol. 18(1), pages 237-263.
    6. Julia Hellstrand & Jessica Nisén & Mikko Myrskylä, 2019. "All-time low period fertility in Finland: drivers, tempo effects, and cohort implications," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2019-006, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    7. Muzhi Zhou & Man-Yee Kan, 2019. "A new family equilibrium? Changing dynamics between the gender division of labor and fertility in Great Britain, 1991–2017," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 40(50), pages 1455-1500.
    8. Maria Andersson & Ola Eriksson & Chris Von Borgstede, 2012. "The Effects of Environmental Management Systems on Source Separation in the Work and Home Settings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 4(6), pages 1-17, June.
    9. Tran Huy Phuong & Thanh Trung Hieu, 2015. "Predictors of Entrepreneurial Intentions of Undergraduate Students in Vietnam: An Empirical Study," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 5(8), pages 46-55, August.
    10. Peng Cheng & Zhe Ouyang & Yang Liu, 0. "The effect of information overload on the intention of consumers to adopt electric vehicles," Transportation, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-20.
    11. Alsalem, Amani & Fry, Marie-Louise & Thaichon, Park, 2020. "To donate or to waste it: Understanding posthumous organ donation attitude," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 87-97.
    12. Benoît Lécureux & Adrien Bonnet & Ouassim Manout & Jaâfar Berrada & Louafi Bouzouina, 2022. "Acceptance of Shared Autonomous Vehicles: A Literature Review of stated choice experiments," Working Papers hal-03814947, HAL.
    13. Kristin Thomas & Evalill Nilsson & Karin Festin & Pontus Henriksson & Mats Lowén & Marie Löf & Margareta Kristenson, 2020. "Associations of Psychosocial Factors with Multiple Health Behaviors: A Population-Based Study of Middle-Aged Men and Women," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-17, February.
    14. Kamruzzaman, Md. & Baker, Douglas & Washington, Simon & Turrell, Gavin, 2013. "Residential dissonance and mode choice," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 12-28.
    15. Ficko, Andrej & Boncina, Andrej, 2013. "Probabilistic typology of management decision making in private forest properties," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 34-43.
    16. Muhammad Shahid Qureshi & Saadat Saeed & Syed Waleed Mehmood Wasti, 2016. "The impact of various entrepreneurial interventions during the business plan competition on the entrepreneur identity aspirations of participants," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Springer;UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship, vol. 6(1), pages 1-18, December.
    17. Julie Bayle-Cordier & Loïc Berger & Rayan Elatmani & Massimo Tavoni, 2023. "Breath, Love, Walk? The Impact of Mindfulness Interventions on Climate Policy Support and Environmental Attitudes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-29, July.
    18. Szu‐Szu Ho & Rosie Stenhouse & Aisha Holloway, 2020. "Understanding HIV‐positive drug users’ experiences of taking highly active antiretroviral treatment: Identity–Values–Conscious engagement model," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(9-10), pages 1561-1575, May.
    19. Alexandre Cabagnols & Ali Maâlej & Pierre Mauchand & Olfa Kammoun, 2022. "The determinants of entrepreneurial intention of scientist PhD students: analytical vs emotional formation of the intention," Insights into Regional Development, VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, vol. 4(4), pages 63-82, December.
    20. Diwanji, Vaibhav S. & Cortese, Juliann, 2020. "Contrasting user generated videos versus brand generated videos in ecommerce," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    gender attitudes; marriage; childbearing; family formation; multidimensional attitudes;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:dem:demres:v:47:y:2022:i:25. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Editorial Office (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.demogr.mpg.de/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.