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Differences in Family Policy and the Intergenerational Transmission of Divorce: A Comparison between the former East and West Germany
Ist Teil von
Demographic research, 2002-05, Vol.6, p.295-324
Ort / Verlag
Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
Erscheinungsjahr
2002
Link zum Volltext
Quelle
EZB Electronic Journals Library
Beschreibungen/Notizen
The intergenerational transmission of the risk of divorce is a well-known long-term effect of divorce that has been found in many Western societies. Less known is the extent to which different family policies and divorce laws have an effect on the intergenerational transmission of divorce. In this paper, the division of Germany into two separate states from 1949 until 1990, with the consequent development of two very different family policies, is regarded as a natural experiment that enables us to investigate the effect of family policy on the mechanisms underlying the social inheritance of divorce. Data from respondents from the former East and West Germany participating in the German Life History Study are analyzed, using multivariate event-history methods. The results indicate that the strength of the intergenerational divorce transmission, when adjusted for differences in the divorce level, was lower in the East than in the West. Differences in marriage age and the timing of first birth, which are partial indicators of family policy, as well as differences in religion, could explain this effect. Furthermore, we found a tendency towards a reduction in the dynamics of divorce transmission over time, both in East and West Germany.