The partnership context of childbearing

With non-marital cohabitation, union dissolution, and repartnering becoming increasingly common in the last few decades, partnership dynamics have become more complex than in the past. This implies that the share of children born to married parents has declined and, conversely, the share of children born to single, cohabiting, or repartnered parents has increased. This chapter begins with a description of the trends in non-marital childbearing across European and other Western societies. I briefly discuss the potential reasons for cross-national differences in these patterns and the main competing explanations underlying the observed patterns. This is followed by an overview of empirical research on the partnership context in which children are born in contemporary European and Western societies and potential socio-economic inequalities in these trends. The concluding section highlights gaps and directions for future research.