Partnership life courses and completed fertility in Spain

Background: Fertility in Spain has declined and shifted to later ages alongside diversification of family formation, raising questions about how partnership life courses shape completed fertility by late reproductive age. Objective: We aim to assess how key features of partnership trajectories - tim...

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Autores: Vidal, Sergi|||0000-0003-4011-2077, Lozano, Mariona|||0000-0002-3803-4009, Bolano, Danilo
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2026
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:dnet:uabarcelona_::deb5e4e7bb4268ff93955a00f3d9bf37
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/328290
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.4054/DemRes.2026.54.29
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Partnership trajectories
Spain
Feature selection
Fertility
Life course
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spelling Partnership life courses and completed fertility in SpainVidal, Sergi|||0000-0003-4011-2077Lozano, Mariona|||0000-0002-3803-4009Bolano, DaniloPartnership trajectoriesSpainFeature selectionFertilityLife courseBackground: Fertility in Spain has declined and shifted to later ages alongside diversification of family formation, raising questions about how partnership life courses shape completed fertility by late reproductive age. Objective: We aim to assess how key features of partnership trajectories - timing, duration, and sequencing - relate to motherhood and parity by age 41 among women in contemporary Spain, and whether associations differ by education. Methods: We analyze 7,656 women, born 1962-1977, in the Spanish Fertility Survey (2018). A feature-selection approach identifies salient aspects of union histories (e.g., postponement or absence of union, stability, cohabitation, higher-order unions) associated with (1) entry into motherhood and (2) progression to higher-order births by age 41, with results stratified by educational attainment. Results: Delayed or foregone union formation during the reproductive years is strongly associated with lower fertility, particularly a lower likelihood of entering motherhood. Stable marriage is consistently linked to higher probabilities of both becoming a mother and progressing to higher-order births. Cohabitation and post-separation trajectories show more nuanced and generally weaker associations with fertility in these cohorts. Associations between partnership status at later reproductive ages and fertility outcomes are more pronounced among highly educated women. Conclusions: Partnership life courses are central to understanding low and late fertility in Spain, and our results shed light on how traditional and emerging partnership dynamics jointly shape fertility outcomes by late reproductive ages. Contribution: We move beyond a narrow event-based focus to provide an integrated, trajectory-based account of how partnership timing, duration, and sequencing relate to motherhood and parity in a sustained low-fertility setting, documenting educational differences in these associations.Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics 22026-01-0120262026-01-01Articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501VoRhttp://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85info:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttps://ddd.uab.cat/record/328290https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.4054/DemRes.2026.54.29reponame:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UABinstname:Universitat Autònoma de BarcelonaInglésengopen accesshttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:dnet:uabarcelona_::deb5e4e7bb4268ff93955a00f3d9bf372026-06-06T12:50:31Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Partnership life courses and completed fertility in Spain
title Partnership life courses and completed fertility in Spain
spellingShingle Partnership life courses and completed fertility in Spain
Vidal, Sergi|||0000-0003-4011-2077
Partnership trajectories
Spain
Feature selection
Fertility
Life course
title_short Partnership life courses and completed fertility in Spain
title_full Partnership life courses and completed fertility in Spain
title_fullStr Partnership life courses and completed fertility in Spain
title_full_unstemmed Partnership life courses and completed fertility in Spain
title_sort Partnership life courses and completed fertility in Spain
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Vidal, Sergi|||0000-0003-4011-2077
Lozano, Mariona|||0000-0002-3803-4009
Bolano, Danilo
author Vidal, Sergi|||0000-0003-4011-2077
author_facet Vidal, Sergi|||0000-0003-4011-2077
Lozano, Mariona|||0000-0002-3803-4009
Bolano, Danilo
author_role author
author2 Lozano, Mariona|||0000-0002-3803-4009
Bolano, Danilo
author2_role author
author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Partnership trajectories
Spain
Feature selection
Fertility
Life course
topic Partnership trajectories
Spain
Feature selection
Fertility
Life course
description Background: Fertility in Spain has declined and shifted to later ages alongside diversification of family formation, raising questions about how partnership life courses shape completed fertility by late reproductive age. Objective: We aim to assess how key features of partnership trajectories - timing, duration, and sequencing - relate to motherhood and parity by age 41 among women in contemporary Spain, and whether associations differ by education. Methods: We analyze 7,656 women, born 1962-1977, in the Spanish Fertility Survey (2018). A feature-selection approach identifies salient aspects of union histories (e.g., postponement or absence of union, stability, cohabitation, higher-order unions) associated with (1) entry into motherhood and (2) progression to higher-order births by age 41, with results stratified by educational attainment. Results: Delayed or foregone union formation during the reproductive years is strongly associated with lower fertility, particularly a lower likelihood of entering motherhood. Stable marriage is consistently linked to higher probabilities of both becoming a mother and progressing to higher-order births. Cohabitation and post-separation trajectories show more nuanced and generally weaker associations with fertility in these cohorts. Associations between partnership status at later reproductive ages and fertility outcomes are more pronounced among highly educated women. Conclusions: Partnership life courses are central to understanding low and late fertility in Spain, and our results shed light on how traditional and emerging partnership dynamics jointly shape fertility outcomes by late reproductive ages. Contribution: We move beyond a narrow event-based focus to provide an integrated, trajectory-based account of how partnership timing, duration, and sequencing relate to motherhood and parity in a sustained low-fertility setting, documenting educational differences in these associations.
publishDate 2026
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2
2026-01-01
2026
2026-01-01
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv Article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
VoR
http://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85
dc.type.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://ddd.uab.cat/record/328290
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.4054/DemRes.2026.54.29
url https://ddd.uab.cat/record/328290
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.4054/DemRes.2026.54.29
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
eng
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
language eng
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.rights.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
instname:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
instname_str Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
reponame_str Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
collection Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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