Interrelationships between Childbearing and Housing Transitions in the Family Life Course

Hill Kulu, University of Liverpool

Research has examined the effect of family changes on housing transitions and childbearing patterns within various housing types. While most research has investigated how an event in one life domain of a family depends on a state in another domain, the interplay between the two life domains has been little studied. This study examines the interrelationships between childbearing and housing transitions. We use rich longitudinal register data from Finland and apply event-history analysis. We first investigate the effect of children on housing changes and childbearing patterns by housing type. We then model childbearing and housing transitions jointly to control for unobserved characteristic of women, which may simultaneously influence their fertility behaviour and housing choices. Finally, we investigate the timing of childbearing and housing changes with respect to each other in order to deepen our understanding of the interplay between these two domains of the family life course.