Intergenerational transmission of age at first birth in Norway

ABSTRACT

Using data from administrative registers, we examine the intergenerational transmission of timing of first birth in Norway for all men and women born between 1954 and 1964. We assess the extent of any intergenerational transmission using discrete-time event history analysis, and estimate associations between the age at first birth of parents and their children. Results suggest that intergenerational transmission of age at first birth is evident in all four parent–child dyads and at all ages of the first-birth process. This means that even in a society as contemporary Norway, with a welfare state that offers a range of universal social benefits, own fertility timing is correlated with parents’ fertility behavior. Furthermore, our analyses indicate that fathers’ high age at first birth is closely associated with postponed birth of sons. Results from a microsimulation suggest that the fertility timing of daughters is less malleable by changes in parental age at birth than the fertility timing of sons. Controlling for a limited set of possible confounders, we find that the intergenerational transmission of age at first birth largely persist.

KEYWORDS:

• Intergenerational transmission
• fertility
• first birth
• education
• parent–child dyads
• Norway

Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the valuable comments from Rannveig Kaldager Hart, Kjetil Telle and two anonymous referees.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Birgitte Sande Riise studied sociology at the University of Oslo and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Her research interests include gender, fertility, family demography and sociology as well as quantitative methods. By today she works at the National Office for Social Insurance Abroad.

Lars Dommermuth is a Senior Researcher at the Research Department of Statistics Norway. His main research interests are in the field of family demography, including fertility intentions, childbearing trends, the transition to adulthood and intergenerational family relations.

Torkild Hovde Lyngstad is professor of sociology at the University of Oslo, Norway. His research interests include family demography, life course criminology and quantitative methods.

Additional information

Funding

This study is part of two research projects funded by the Research Council of Norway: Family Dynamics, Fertility Choices and Family Policy [project no. 202422] and Changing Families and the Gender Revolution [project no. 236926].