Education, Work, and Parenthood: The Experience of Young Men and Women in Post-War Sweden

Martin Dribe, Lund University
Maria A. Stanfors, Lund University

This paper analyzes the determinants of young men’s and women’s entry into parenthood, applying hazard regressions to data made up by annual aggregate time series as well as longitudinal micro-data from the 1992/93 Swedish Family Survey. We study the impact of education, labor market attachment and macro-economic change, as well as civil status and family of upbringing, on becoming a parent for both men and women in Sweden since the mid-1960s. Our results show a general tendency over time to delay the transition to parenthood among both men and women. When it comes to the determinants of conception leading to first birth, there are clear gender differences both when it comes to individual characteristics and aggregate-level factors. Education and labor market attachment are key factors determining the transition to parenthood for both men and women, even though the effects, in several respects, differ between the sexes.