With or without you: partnership context of first conceptions and births in Hungary

Abstract

Using notions from the Second Demographic Transition theory and the Pattern of Disadvantage argument, I study how women’s risk of a first conception within different union types (single, cohabitation, marriage) is influenced by education in Hungary and whether this influence has changed over time. Additionally, I examine the transition to marriage among women who experienced a non-marital conception. Using the first wave of the Hungarian Generations and Gender Survey from 2004, I conduct discrete time survival analyses and logistic regression. I find a positive educational gradient for single and marital conceptions while this gradient is negative for cohabiting conceptions. Highly educated women are less likely to experience a conception when single or cohabiting than when married compared to their medium educated counterparts. Furthermore, the impact of education on the risk of a single and marital conception has changed over time. Following the transition in 1990, a positive gradient of education on the risk of a single conception emerged whereas for marital conceptions the effect of education is negative. No consistent patterns are found for cohabiting conceptions. Additionally, medium educated women and those who experienced a conception while being single are more likely to marry between the conception and birth than their lower educated counterparts and those who experienced a cohabiting conception. Furthermore, highly educated women who experience a single conception are 1.4 times as likely to marry before the birth of the first child as their counterparts with medium education.

More information

Identifiers

Catalogue record

Export record