Sweden has seen a reversal in marriage trends, from mainly declining marriage rates since the 1960s to increasing rates from 1998 and onwards. By applying event-history techniques to Swedish register data, this study examines whether the trend reversal is related to compositional changes in various socio-economic and demographic characteristics of the population, with special focus on childbearing. Only first marriages of women are studied as these largely represent the general marriage trends. The results show that the trend reversal only partly can be ascribed to compositional changes, more specifically to changes in labor-market attachment and childbearing. Thus, there is evidence of a new marriage trend in Sweden that does not conform very well to that of generally declining marriage rates as is often depicted in demographic literature. Furthermore, there is evidence of pro-cyclical marriage and childbearing trends. These patterns are especially interesting because Sweden is a country that in many aspects has been a forerunner in the development of new trends in family-demographic behavior and a country where childbearing and marriage are not necessarily seen as very closely interrelated.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-60091 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Ohlsson, Sofi |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, Sociologiska institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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