Childbearing across Partnerships in Italy: Prevalence, Correlates, Consequences

Elena Pirani , University of Florence
Daniele Vignoli , University of Florence

Studies of childbearing across partnerships, or the experience of having children with more than one partner, have generally focused on countries with relatively high parental separation rates. We complement analyses of this sort for Italy; a country well-known for its familistic features. Using nationally-representative retrospective data and event-history techniques, our study offers three key findings. First, we detected a non-negligible share of childbearing across partnerships, although at substantially low levels relative to other wealthy countries (4%). Second, multivariable analyses revealed an impressive similarity about the demographic correlates of the phenomenon found elsewhere. Finally, we showed that childbearing across partnerships was initiated by the ‘social vanguard’ of new family behaviours (highly educated individuals, living in the North, from upper-class families), but then diffused among the least well-off. The study will be complemented by analysing the consequences of childbearing across partnerships for parents and children. Overall, this study adds to the growing literature on childbearing across partnerships by showing the phenomenon to be also demographically and sociologically relevant in more familistic countries, with potential implications for children, parents, and service providers.

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 Presented in Session 58. Childlessness and parenthood in the life course