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The Timing of Family Formation in Britain and Spain

Both fertility and marriage behaviour have changed considerably throughout Western Europe. While fertility has declined across the continent there has been an increase in the age of marriage, accompanied by an increase in cohabitation rates and marriage dissolution. These cross- national trends have been suggested to be indicative of a second demographic transition. Both Beck and Giddens have attempted to locate these changes in family formation within a wider context of social change associated with late modernity. However, in this paper we argue that in trying to provide a universal theory to understand the second demographic transition it is important not to overlook important cross- national differences. Previous comparative research has established that in the South young people tend to marry later, but have children earlier in partnerships. While in the North, marriage and leaving home occur earlier but the link between marriage and childbirth is weaker. In this paper we use data from the British National Child Development Study and the Spanish 1991 Sociodemographic Survey in order to compare the processes of family formation in Britain and Spain. The emphasis is on understanding the sequencing and timing of a) leaving home, b) forming a partnership, and c) giving birth to a first child in relation to each other rather than as independent events.