Do Sons Prevent Marital Disruption More Than Daughters? Evidence From Italy

Abstract

In a well-known study Morgan, Lye, and Condran (1988) stated that sons prevent the risk of divorce more than daughters do. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the sex composition of children on the stability of the parental marriage in Italy, a country where this research question is particularly interesting because of conservative gender roles within the family. The relative risk of marital dissolution is estimated for individuals with different numbers and sexes of children using a discrete time event-history model. The findings do not support either the hypothesis that sons contribute more to marital stability than daughters or the hypothesis that the effect of the sex composition of children has changed over time.

KEYWORDS:

• children
• divorce
• marital dissolution
• Italy
• sex of children

The author wishes to thank Marco Albertini, Michael Gähler, Julo Härkönen, and Manuela Naldini for their helpful comments.

Notes

¹Only recently published have been a history of divorce (Seymour, 2006), a study on the effects of divorce on children's educational attainment (Albertini & Dronkers, 2009), a study on intergenerational relations after marital dissolution (Albertini & Saraceno, 2008), and a study on the economic consequences of marital dissolution (Ongaro, Mazzuco, & Meggiolaro, 2009).

²For instance, considering the couples legally separated in 1971, in 2005 37.3% had still not started divorce proceedings (Urbano & Todesco, 2008).

³Malta is not included in the comparison because divorce is not allowed at all in that country.

⁴In 2004, spousal maintenance was granted only in 25.0% of legal separation proceedings.

⁵The age restriction was due to the fact that an important control variable (parental separation or divorce) was available only for individuals aged under 70.

⁶The event of legal separation does not coincide with the effective breakup of the marital couple, but unfortunately the variable concerning the year of de facto separation is seldom available in the Families and Social Subjects Survey.