Volume 48 - Article 23 | Pages 641–680  

Adult children’s union type and contact with mothers: A replication

By Martin Kreidl, Zuzana Žilinčíková

Abstract

Background: Several studies show that cohabiting adult children have less frequent contact with their mothers than married adult children. We argue that these findings might be spurious due to confounding.

Objective: Our aim is to replicate earlier research using more robust statistical instruments from the family of multi-level models with fixed effects, which are known to offer better control of omitted-variable bias. We also want to show the extent to which union-type effects vary across countries and by parenthood status.

Methods: We use data from the SHARE survey. Mothers are the primary respondents and report on contact with all their children as well as on their children’s union type. We apply mother-level fixed effects (i.e., within-mother comparisons) to see if the frequency of contact depends on the child’s union type (distinguishing marriage and unmarried cohabitation).

Results: We find no overall association between the adult child’s union status and the frequency of intergenerational contact with the mother. While there are some differences across countries in this effect, these are uncorrelated with the prevalence of unmarried cohabitation, any typology of family systems, or the prevailing type of unmarried cohabitation.

Conclusions: We failed to replicate previously reported associations between children’s union type and frequency of intergenerational contact. We conclude that the earlier findings are spurious and cannot be interpreted causally.

Contribution: Unmarried cohabitations should not be seen as ‘incomplete institutions.’ Cohabitors are not excluded from family networks and intergenerational exchanges on the basis of their union status.

Author's Affiliation

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

Partnership satisfaction in Czechia during the COVID-19 pandemic
Volume 49 - Article 24

Stability in children’s residential arrangements and distance to nonresident parents in the 10 years after parental separation
Volume 49 - Article 12

Who moves out and who keeps the home? Short-term and medium-term mobility consequences of grey divorce in Belgium
Volume 45 - Article 9

Parental separation and children’s education in a comparative perspective: Does the burden disappear when separation is more common?
Volume 36 - Article 3

Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research

Ultra-Orthodox fertility and marriage in the United States: Evidence from the American Community Survey
Volume 49 - Article 29    | Keywords: age at first marriage, American Community Survey (ACS), fertility, Judaism, marriage, religion, total fertility rate (TFR), Ultra-Orthodox Judaism

An alternative version of the second demographic transition? Changing pathways to first marriage in Japan
Volume 49 - Article 16    | Keywords: cohabitation, first marriages, pattern of disadvantage, premarital children, second demographic transition, transition

Subnational variations in births and marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea
Volume 48 - Article 30    | Keywords: COVID-19, fertility, Korea, marriage

Family inequality: On the changing educational gradient of family patterns in Western Germany
Volume 48 - Article 20    | Keywords: census data, descriptive analysis, divorce, educational inequality, family, Germany, marriage, partnership, time, trends

A register-based account of period trends in union prevalence, entries, and exits by educational level for men and women in Finland
Volume 48 - Article 14    | Keywords: cohabitation, divorce, education, Finland, marriage, register data, trends, union dissolution