Volume 34 - Article 26 | Pages 741–760 Author has provided data and code for replicating results

Union dissolution and migration

By Thomas J. Cooke, Clara H. Mulder, Michael Thomas

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Date received:06 Apr 2015
Date published:27 Apr 2016
Word count:4544
Keywords:migration, union dissolution
DOI:10.4054/DemRes.2016.34.26
Additional files:readme.34-26 (text file, 2 kB)
 demographic-research.34-26 (zip file, 9 kB)
 

Abstract

Background: While there is a limited body of research regarding residential mobility and migration following union dissolution, there is a particular dearth of studies that go into detail about the factors that shape how union dissolution may result in long-distance migration.

Objective: This research isolates and identifies the processes that influence inter-state migration in the period immediately following the dissolution of a marital union.

Methods: Multilevel logit models of the probability of inter-state migration following the dissolution of marital unions are estimated using data drawn from the 1975 through 2011 US Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID).

Results: The results provide support for a gendered model of family migration, indicate that separated parents are less likely to migrate than ex-partners without children, and suggest that the migration decisions of former partners may remain linked through their children even after the end of their union.

Conclusions: These results indicate that the migration of separated parents is constrained by the need for parents with joint or shared children to remain in close geographic proximity to each other. Since both the number of children living with separated parents and the number of those parents with joint or shared custody are increasing, it is likely that this plays some role in the long-term decline in US migration rates.

Author's Affiliation

Thomas J. Cooke - University of Connecticut, United States of America [Email]
Clara H. Mulder - Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, the Netherlands [Email]
Michael Thomas - Statistisk sentralbyrå (Statistics Norway), Norway [Email]

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

» Family life transitions, residential relocations, and housing in the life course: Current research and opportunities for future work: Introduction to the Special Collection on “Separation, Divorce, and Residential Mobility in a Comparative Perspective”
Volume 43 - Article 2

» Nonresident family as a motive for migration
Volume 42 - Article 13

» Separation, divorce, and housing tenure: A cross-country comparison
Volume 41 - Article 39

» Variations in migration motives over distance
Volume 40 - Article 38

» A new look at the housing antecedents of separation
Volume 40 - Article 26

» Putting family centre stage: Ties to nonresident family, internal migration, and immobility
Volume 39 - Article 43

» Differences in leaving home by individual and parental education among young adults in Europe
Volume 37 - Article 63

» All tied up: Tied staying and tied migration within the United States, 1997 to 2007
Volume 29 - Article 30

» Family dynamics and housing: Conceptual issues and empirical findings
Volume 29 - Article 14

» Geographical distances between adult children and their parents in the Netherlands
Volume 17 - Article 22

» Population and housing: A two-sided relationship
Volume 15 - Article 13

» A comparative analysis of leaving home in the United States, the Netherlands and West Germany
Volume 7 - Article 17

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