Anne-Kristin Kuhnt

Diversität von Familie in Deutschland

Familien in Deutschland haben vielfaltige Erscheinungsformen. Fur eine Analyse der Diversitat von Familie gilt es entsprechend zunachst den Familienbegriff abzugrenzen. Auffallig ist, dass es keine einheitliche Definition des Begriffs „Familie“ gibt (Nave-Herz 2013, S. 34; Trager 2009, S. 18). Verschiedene Begriffsklarungen weisen jedoch eine Uberschneidung hinsichtlich der Reproduktions- und Sozialisationsfunktion von Familie auf (Hill und Kopp 2013; Huinink und Konietzka 2007; Marbach 2008; Trager 2009). Dies bedeutet, dass innerhalb einer Familie mindestens ein Kind vorhanden und damit eine Elternschaftsbeziehung vorliegen muss. Damit ist gleichzeitig das Merkmal der Generationendifferenzierung innerhalb von Familien erfullt.

The prevalence of single-parent families and stepfamilies in Europe: can the Hajnal line help us to describe regional patterns?

Abstract The study’s main objective is to gauge the prevalence of family forms following separation and divorce in Europe. In addition to the comparison of the prevalence of single-parent families and stepfamilies in Europe based on data of the ‘Generations and Gender Program’ (GGP), family patterns which draw on marriage and divorce rates on the one hand, and on the incidence of single parenthood and stepfamilies on the other hand are investigated. Data are available for 17 European countries (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Sweden) and include a total of 58,336 family households with minor children. The analysis first presents descriptive statistics allowing comparisons of the prevalence of single-parent families and stepfamilies. Secondly, a cluster analysis was carried out to identify family patterns around Europe and to answer the question, whether the Hajnal line can help us to describe regional differences. By taking marriage and divorce rates as well as the prevalence of single parenthood and stepfamilies into account we were able to identify four clusters of family patterns, which give no support for Hajnal’s line anymore. Family patterns in Europe are quite complex and hard to systemize by an East–West divide.

Fertility Ideals of Women and Men Across the Life Course

This paper explores the stability of women’s and men’s fertility preferences across the life course. The data come from the first six waves of the German Family Panel (pairfam), which span the period from 2008/2009 until 2013/2014. In our analysis, fertility preferences are measured using the following question: “Under ideal circumstances, how many children would you like to have?” The average number cited by both women and men is 2.2. With rising age, this number declines modestly. Relying on fixed-effects modelling, we find that neither partnership status nor economic circumstances have any causal effect on fertility preferences. However, as the number of children a respondent has increases, his or her ideal number of children is also likely to grow. Thus, fertility ideals appear to undergo changes over time, and are adjusted in line with the size of the respondent’s own family.