The More the Merrier? The Effect of Children on Divorce in a Pronatalist Society

Abstract

While most studies on the effect of children on divorce focus on countries with fertility levels below or near replacement level, we explore whether the stabilizing effect of children on marriage holds in the OECD country with the highest fertility rate - Israel. This high rate allowed us to examine the non-linear effects of having many children on divorce. We also examined whether the pattern of this relationship depends on the couple's ethnic and economic position. Based on a dataset which merged administrative data from the tax authorities with the National Insurance Institute database, we took a random sample of 25% of all women who married in 2003 and followed them until 2015. Findings for the total sample revealed a positive, albeit non-linear, effect of number of children on divorce, while young children at home decreased divorce risks. However, the effect of number of children on the likelihood to divorce was dependent upon income and ethnic group. Children stabilized marriage among Israeli-Palestinians and destabilized it among Israeli-Jews, though with decreasing effects from the first to the third child. Findings are discussed with regard to the importance of examining relations between children and divorce across groups in the society. FU - Centre for Population, Family and Health (CPFH) at the University of Antwerp; Flemish Agency of Innovation and Entrepreneurship [140069] FX - This chapter benefited from the support of the Centre for Population, Family and Health (CPFH) at the University of Antwerp and the Flemish Agency of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Grant number:140069), which enabled Open Access to this chapter. NR - 74 PU - SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG PI - CHAM PA - GEWERBESTRASSE 11, CHAM, CH-6330, SWITZERLAND