The relationship between marital breakdown and childbearing in England and Wales.

Abstract

"The paper uses data on women from the General Household Surveys for 1986-89 [for England and Wales] to form combined multiple decrement tables on the transitions from first marriage through childbearing, divorce and remarriage. It shows that ultimately women who experience one marital breakdown tend to have around the same number of children...as those who remain married. However, their time to complete childbearing is rather longer with this extra time being concentrated largely in the birth interval in which the marital breakdown takes place. The group of women who experience more than one marital breakdown tend to have more children and consequently shorter birth intervals."