The changing inter-relationship between partnership dynamics and fertility trends in Europe and the United States: A review

Background: Profound shifts in partnership and fertility in recent decades call for a re-examination of the linkages between partnership and fertility dynamics. Objective: This review systemizes the literature across Europe and the United States studying the intersection between partnership and fertility, providing a roadmap accessible across disciplines. We categorize the pathways through which partnerships and childbearing are linked according to different partnership dimensions – type, timing, duration, order, dissolution – and investigate key factors that influence these pathways (i.e., macro context, migration status, race/ethnicity). Results: We find that marriage remains more predictive of childbearing than cohabitation, and longer-lasting partnerships formed earlier in the life course are reliably linked to higher fertility levels. As partnership trajectories continue to become more complex due to dissolution and re-partnering, recent research suggests that complexity will ultimately depress fertility, instead of increasing it. Country context shapes the relationship between partnering and fertility by influencing the costs and benefits of each, over time and space. Finally, because race/ethnicity and migrant status are key predictors in family behaviours and the partnership context for childbearing, we also found variation by race, ethnicity, and migrant status in the intersection of partnership and fertility, which can persist across migrant generations. Contribution: Our review demonstrates how every facet of partnership relates to fertility and emphasizes the importance of studying partnership as a multi-dimensional and dynamic concept. Partnership should be viewed as a sequence of transitions with varying meanings across subgroups, time, and the life course, instead of focusing on summary measures such as average ages of marriage and first birth.