A1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä lehdessä
Partnership pathways associated with lifetime childlessness in Belgium and Finland
Tekijät: Rees, Alice; Schnor, Christine; Jalovaara, Marika
Kustantaja: Society of Social and Economic Research in the Universities of Turku
Julkaisuvuosi: 2025
Journal: Finnish journal of social research
Vuosikerta: 18
Numero: 1
Aloitussivu: 25
Lopetussivu: 39
ISSN: 2736-9749
eISSN: 2814-5038
DOI: https://doi.org/10.51815/fjsr.146184
Verkko-osoite: https://doi.org/10.51815/fjsr.146184
Rinnakkaistallenteen osoite: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/500455753
In recent decades, many European countries have witnessed both a rise in ultimate childlessness and
increasing diversity in partnership trajectories. This paper investigates patterns of partnership trajectories
associated with childlessness in Belgium and Finland from a life-course perspective. Using sequence
and cluster analysis on register data, we examine the partnership histories of Belgian (N=19,590) and
Finnish (N=13,368) men and women born in 1975, following them from age 18 to 45. We identified five
typical partnership clusters among the Belgian childless and four among the Finnish. Three clusters—
Never Partnered, Partnership Instability, and Marriage—are common to both countries. Most childless
individuals in both countries remain unpartnered or face partnership instability. A turbulence index was
then computed to assess the difference of turbulence of the sequences between the two countries. This paper
contributes to the literature on childlessness by examining the heterogeneity of partnership biographies
and cross-country differences using high-quality administrative data.
Ladattava julkaisu This is an electronic reprint of the original article. |  |
Julkaisussa olevat rahoitustiedot:
The authors wish to thank Statistics Finland (permission TK52-493-19) and Statistics Belgium for granting
permission to use the data. We acknowledge support from the Research Council of Finland under Grand
320162 for the INVEST research flagship, and FLUX project founded by the Strategic Research Council
(decision number 345130). We thank Statbel (Directorate-General Statistics – Statistics Belgium) for
access to the Demobel (adaptation of the National Register). Computational resources were provided by
the supercomputing facilities of the Université Catholique de Louvain (CISM/UCL) and the Consortium
des Équipements de Calcul Intensif en Fédération Wallonie Bruxelles (CÉCI), funded by the Fond de
la Recherche Scientifique de Belgique (F.R.S.-FNRS) under convention 2.5020.11 and by the Walloon
Region.
