IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/demogr/v52y2015i3p811-833.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Family Disruption and Intergenerational Reproduction: Comparing the Influences of Married Parents, Divorced Parents, and Stepparents

Author

Listed:
  • Matthijs Kalmijn

Abstract

The transmission of individual characteristics and behaviors across generations has frequently been studied in the social sciences. For a growing number of children, however, the biological father was present in the household for only part of the time; and for many children, stepfathers were present. What are the implications of these changes for the process of intergenerational transmission? To answer this question, this article compares intergenerational transmission among married, divorced, and stepparents. Two forms of reproduction are studied: educational attainment and church attendance. For education, divorced fathers were as influential as married fathers, whereas stepfathers were less influential. For church attendance, married fathers were most influential, divorced fathers were least influential, and stepfathers were in between. Divorced mothers, in contrast, appeared to be more influential than married mothers. These findings lend negative support for the social capital hypothesis and positive support for notions of value socialization. The strong role of the divorced father for educational transmission is consistent with genetic processes and hypotheses about early advantages. Copyright The Author(s) 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Matthijs Kalmijn, 2015. "Family Disruption and Intergenerational Reproduction: Comparing the Influences of Married Parents, Divorced Parents, and Stepparents," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(3), pages 811-833, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:demogr:v:52:y:2015:i:3:p:811-833
    DOI: 10.1007/s13524-015-0388-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s13524-015-0388-z
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s13524-015-0388-z?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jere R. Behrman & Mark R. Rosenzweig, 2002. "Does Increasing Women's Schooling Raise the Schooling of the Next Generation?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(1), pages 323-334, March.
    2. Elizabeth Cooksey & Patricia Craig, 1998. "Parenting from a distance: The effects of paternal characteristics on contact between nonresidential fathers and their children," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 35(2), pages 187-200, May.
    3. Jacob Cheadle & Paul Amato & Valarie King, 2010. "Patterns of nonresident father contact," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 47(1), pages 205-225, February.
    4. Erik Plug, 2004. "Estimating the Effect of Mother's Schooling on Children's Schooling Using a Sample of Adoptees," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(1), pages 358-368, March.
    5. Evelyn Lehrer & Carmel Chiswick, 1993. "Religion as a determinant of marital stability," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 30(3), pages 385-404, August.
    6. Fabrizio Bernardi & Jonas Radl, 2014. "The long-term consequences of parental divorce for children’s educational attainment," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 30(61), pages 1653-1680.
    7. Robert Mare, 2011. "A Multigenerational View of Inequality," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 48(1), pages 1-23, February.
    8. Kira S. Birditt & Lauren A. Tighe & Karen L. Fingerman & Steven H. Zarit, 2012. "Intergenerational Relationship Quality Across Three Generations," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 67(5), pages 627-638.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mats Lillehagen & Martin Arstad Isungset, 2020. "New Partner, New Order? Multipartnered Fertility and Birth Order Effects on Educational Achievement," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(5), pages 1625-1646, October.
    2. Eva Beaujouan & Anne Solaz, 2019. "Is the Family Size of Parents and Children Still Related? Revisiting the Cross-Generational Relationship Over the Last Century," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(2), pages 595-619, April.
    3. Emily Smith-Greenaway, 2020. "Does Parents’ Union Instability Disrupt Intergenerational Advantage? An Analysis of Sub-Saharan Africa," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(2), pages 445-473, April.
    4. Sarah R. Brauner-Otto & William G. Axinn & Dirgha J. Ghimire, 2020. "Parents’ Marital Quality and Children’s Transition to Adulthood," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(1), pages 195-220, February.
    5. Engdahl, Bo & Idstad, Mariann & Skirbekk, Vegard, 2019. "Hearing loss, family status and mortality – Findings from the HUNT study, Norway," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 219-225.
    6. Deirdre Bloome, 2017. "Childhood Family Structure and Intergenerational Income Mobility in the United States," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(2), pages 541-569, April.
    7. Eva Beaujouan & Anne Solaz, 2016. "Are family sizes of parents and children still related? Revisiting the cross-generationalrelationship over the last century," Working Papers 223, Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED).
    8. Anna Tegunimataka, 2023. "The Health of Immigrant Youth in Denmark: Examining Immigrant Generations and Origin," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 659-694, June.

    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. Kieron Barclay & Torkild Lyngstad & Dalton Conley, 2018. "The Production of Inequalities within Families and Across Generations: The Intergenerational Effects of Birth Order and Family Size on Educational Attainment," NBER Working Papers 24530, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Kieron J. Barclay & Torkild H. Lyngstad & Dalton Conley, 2018. "The production of inequalities within families and across generations: the intergenerational effects of birth order and family size on educational attainment," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2018-002, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    3. de la Croix, David & Goñi, Marc, 2020. "Nepotism vs. Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital in Academia (1088--1800)," CEPR Discussion Papers 15159, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Arnaud Chevalier & Colm Harmon & Vincent O’ Sullivan & Ian Walker, 2013. "The impact of parental income and education on the schooling of their children," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 2(1), pages 1-22, December.
    5. Meng, Xin & Zhao, Guochang, 2021. "The long shadow of a large scale education interruption: The intergenerational effect," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    6. Sandra E. Black & Paul J. Devereux & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2005. "Why the Apple Doesn't Fall Far: Understanding Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(1), pages 437-449, March.
    7. Juan Cañada Vicinay, 2015. "Coyuntura económica y dotación social en la ecuación intergeneracional de Becker Tomes. Una estimación para España 2002-2013," Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación volume 10, in: Marta Rahona López & Jennifer Graves (ed.), Investigaciones de Economía de la Educación 10, edition 1, volume 10, chapter 40, pages 793-810, Asociación de Economía de la Educación.
    8. Philip Oreopoulos & Kjell G. Salvanes, 2009. "How large are returns to schooling? Hint: Money isn't everything," NBER Working Papers 15339, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Erik Grönqvist & Björn Öckert & Jonas Vlachos, 2017. "The Intergenerational Transmission of Cognitive and Noncognitive Abilities," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 52(4), pages 887-918.
    10. Victor Fernandez-Blanco & Maria Jose Perez-Villadoniga & Juan Prieto-Rodriguez, 2016. "Intergenerational Transmission of Musical Education," ACEI Working Paper Series AWP-01-2016, Association for Cultural Economics International, revised Jan 2016.
    11. Nicolas Fleury & Fabrice Gilles, 2015. "A meta-regression analysis on intergenerational transmission of education: publication bias and genuine empirical effect," TEPP Working Paper 2015-02, TEPP.
    12. Thao Bui, 2023. "Compulsory education reform and child mortality in Peru," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(9), pages 1941-1963, September.
    13. Anna Laura Mancini & Chiara Monfardini & Silvia Pasqua, 2017. "Is a good example the best sermon? Children’s imitation of parental reading," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 965-993, September.
    14. Sonia Bhalotra & Samantha Rawlings, 2013. "Gradients of the Intergenerational Transmission of Health in Developing Countries," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(2), pages 660-672, May.
    15. Boll, Christina & Hoffmann, Malte, 2015. "It's not all about parents' education, it also matters what they do: Parents' employment and children's school success in Germany," HWWI Research Papers 162, Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI).
    16. Liwen Chen & Bobby Chung & Guanghua Wang, 2022. "Stay-at-Home Peer Mothers and Gender Norms: Short-run Effects on Educational Outcomes," Working Papers 2022-039, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    17. Silles, Mary A., 2011. "The intergenerational effects of parental schooling on the cognitive and non-cognitive development of children," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 258-268, April.
    18. Black, Sandra E. & Devereux, Paul J., 2011. "Recent Developments in Intergenerational Mobility," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 16, pages 1487-1541, Elsevier.
    19. de Haan, Monique & Plug, Erik, 2006. "Estimates of the Effect of Parents’ Schooling on Children’s Schooling Using Censored and Uncensored Samples," IZA Discussion Papers 2416, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Antonio Di Paolo & Josep Lluís Raymond & Jorge Calero, 2010. "Exploring educational mobility in Europe," Working Papers 2010/10, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).

    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:spr:demogr:v:52:y:2015:i:3:p:811-833. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.