Volume 36 - Article 62 | Pages 1889–1916 
The timing of parenthood and its effect on social contact and support
| Date received: | 05 Sep 2016 |
| Date published: | 28 Jun 2017 |
| Word count: | 7025 |
| Keywords: | family, life course analysis, parenthood, personal networks, social contact, social contacts, timing of parenthood |
| DOI: | 10.4054/DemRes.2017.36.62 |
| Additional files: | readme.36-62 (text file, 1 kB) |
| demographic-research.36-62 (zip file, 15 kB) | |
Abstract
Objective: The objective of this study is to investigate how the timing of parenthood affects social contacts and support.
Methods: Fixed effects models on 12 waves of the Swiss Household Panel (1999−2010) are used to analyse how social relationships with relatives, friends, and neighbours change after people have children and how these changes depend on the timing of parenthood.
Results: The models show that parenthood increases contact with neighbours and decreases contact with friends. However, there are differences based on whether parenthood is early, on time, or late, and based on gender. The earlier men and women have children, the harder it is to keep in contact with friends and to establish contact with neighbours. Later in life the differences between early, ‘on-time’, and late parents tend to decline, except for contact with friends, for fathers.
Conclusions: We conclude that the timing of parenthood has a substantial impact on how people’s social networks change, especially shortly after they become parents.
Contribution: With this study, we show that the timing of parenthood moderates people’s network changes after they become parents.
Author's Affiliation
Jesper Rözer - Universiteit van Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Anne-Rigt Poortman - Universiteit Utrecht, the Netherlands
Gerald Mollenhorst - Universiteit Utrecht, the Netherlands
Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research
»
Joint lifestyles and the risk of union dissolution: Differences between marriage and cohabitation
Volume 39 - Article 15
»
Editorial for Special Collection on New Relationships from a Comparative Perspective
Volume 37 - Article 2
»
Why do intimate partners live apart? Evidence on LAT relationships across Europe
Volume 32 - Article 8
»
Income pooling strategies among cohabiting and married couples: A comparative perspective
Volume 30 - Article 55
Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research
»
Long-term trends of men’s co-residence with children in England and Wales
Volume 30 - Article 23 | Keywords: family, parenthood
»
Family change and migration in the life course: An introduction
Volume 17 - Article 19 | Keywords: family, life course analysis
»
Family systems and the timing and spacing of bearing children
Volume 42 - Article 16 | Keywords: life course analysis
»
The age difference between spouses and reproduction in 19th century Sweden
Volume 41 - Article 37 | Keywords: family
»
The formal demography of kinship: A matrix formulation
Volume 41 - Article 24 | Keywords: family
Articles
Citations
Cited References: 59
»View the references of this article
Download to Citation Manager
Similar Articles
PubMed
»Articles by Anne-Rigt Poortman
»Articles by Gerald Mollenhorst
Google Scholar
»Articles by Anne-Rigt Poortman
»Articles by Gerald Mollenhorst