Refereed journal article or data article (A1)
Partnership formation and dissolution over the life course: an illustration of the application of sequence analysis and event history analysis in the study of recurrent events
List of Authors: Satu Helske, Fiona Steele, Katja Kokko, Eija Räikkönen, Mervi Eerola
Publisher: The Society for Longitudinal and Life Course Studies
Place: London, UK
Publication year: 2015
Journal: Longitudinal and Life Course Studies
Journal acronym: LLCS
Volume number: 6
Issue number: 1
Start page: 1
End page: 25
Number of pages: 25
ISSN: 1757-9597
eISSN: 1757-9597
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14301/llcs.v6i1.290
URL: www.llcsjournal.org
We present two types of approach to the analysis of recurrent events for discretely measured data, and show how these methods can complement each other when analysing coresidential partnership histories. Sequence analysis is a descriptive tool that gives an overall picture of the data and helps to find typical and atypical patterns in histories. Event history analysis is useed to make conclusions about the effects of covariates on the timing and duration of the partnerships. As a substantive question, we studied how family background and childhood socio-emotional characteristics were related to later partnership formation and stability in a Finnish cohort born in 1959. We found that high self-control of emotions at age 8 was related to a lower risk of partnership dissolution and for women a lower probability of repartnering. Child-centred parenting practices during childhood were related to a lower risk of dissolution for women. Socially active boys were faster at forming partnerships as men.