Research report 2003 - Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

Fertility dynamics and family forms after the German reunification

Authors
Konietzka, Dirk; Kreyenfeld, Michaela
Departments
Fertilitäts- und Familiendynamiken im heutigen Europa (Jan Hoem), MPI für demografische Forschung, Rostock
Summary
The transformation of East Germany's legal and political system has provided researchers with rich opportunities to study the effect of radical social change on fertility and life course patterns. From a family-research perspective, understanding the extent to which timing in marriage and family formation has changed since unification is particularly interesting. Despite a substantial increase following unification, the age at first parenthood in eastern Germany has not reached West German levels. Family- and fertility-related behavior in both parts of Germany also differs as to marriage patterns, living arrangements, and the employment behavior of mothers. Many aspects of demographic change in eastern Germany and Eastern Europe are not yet fully understood. The "Gender and Generations Program" will collect both individual level and contextual data for theoretically innovative, comparative analyses of changing family dynamics after system transformation.

For the full text, see the German version.

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