Table 3.
Sample composition by region and union form at the time the first child was born
| Union form at first childbirth | Sample composition | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cohabiting | Married | |||||||||
| Western Germans | Eastern Germans | t testa | Western Germans | Eastern Germans | t testa | |||||
| Distribution of respondents, in column percent | ||||||||||
| Educational level | ** | *** | ||||||||
| Low educated | 26 % | 7 % | 19 % | 3 % | ||||||
| Middle educated | 35 % | 62 % | 42 % | 61 % | ||||||
| High educated | 38 % | 29 % | 39 % | 36 % | ||||||
| Missing Information | <1 % | <1 % | <1 % | –/– | ||||||
| Religious affiliation | *** | *** | ||||||||
| Catholic | 35 % | 3 % | 43 % | 4 % | ||||||
| Protestant | 44 % | 17 % | 39 % | 25 % | ||||||
| No church member | 18 % | 79 % | 11 % | 69 % | ||||||
| Other affiliation | 3 % | <1 % | 7 % | 2 % | ||||||
| Missing information | –/– | <1 % | <1 % | –/– | ||||||
| Living together with both parents until age 18b | n.s. | n.s. | ||||||||
| Yes | 55 % | 57 % | 64 % | 62 % | ||||||
| No | 21 % | 23 % | 13 % | 21 % | ||||||
| Missing information | 24 % | 20 % | 23 % | 18 % | ||||||
| Family formed under | * | *** | ||||||||
| Old legislation (prior 7/1998) | 21 % | 25 % | 26 % | 36 % | ||||||
| New legislation (after 7/1998) | 79 % | 75 % | 74 % | 64 % | ||||||
| Employment status 9 months prior to first childbirthc | *** | *** | ||||||||
| Non-employed | 10 % | 15 % | 7 % | 11 % | ||||||
| Full-time employed | 40 % | 34 % | 43 % | 47 % | ||||||
| Part-time employed | 5 % | 10 % | 4 % | 9 % | ||||||
| Missing information | 45 % | 41 % | 46 % | 35 % | ||||||
| Sex of first child | n.s. | n.s. | ||||||||
| Male | 56 % | 53 % | 49 % | 54 % | ||||||
| Female | 44 % | 48 % | 51 % | 46 % | ||||||
| Health status of first child | n.s. | *** | ||||||||
| Not handicapped | 85 % | 89 % | 83 % | 92 % | ||||||
| Handicapped | 15 % | 11 % | 17 % | 8 % | ||||||
| Season of birth of child | n.s. | n.s. | ||||||||
| Non-winter | 51 % | 48 % | 54 % | 55 % | ||||||
| Winter | 49 % | 52 % | 46 % | 45 % | ||||||
| Number of siblings | ** | *** | ||||||||
| No Siblings | 21 % | 25 % | 14 % | 30 % | ||||||
| 1 Sibling | 42 % | 48 % | 42 % | 47 % | ||||||
| 2 or more siblings | 37 % | 27 % | 44 % | 23 % | ||||||
| Birth cohorts | *** | n.s. | ||||||||
| 1971–1973 | 70 % | 53 % | 80 % | 78 % | ||||||
| 1981–1983 | 30 % | 47 % | 20 % | 22 % | ||||||
| Mean values of time-constant partnership covariates (standard deviations in brackets) | ||||||||||
| Age at first childbirth (years) | ||||||||||
| Cohorts 1971–1973 | 28.2 (0.33) | 26.2 (0.31) | *** | 28.0 (0.16) | 26.4 (0.29) | *** | ||||
| Cohorts 1981–1983 | 22.6 (0.29) | 23.2 (0.20) | n.s. | 24.3 (0.19) | 24.8 (0.29) | n.s. | ||||
| Union duration (years) | 3.6 (0.19) | 4.5 (0.16) | *** | 6.1 (0.13) | 6.0 (0.21) | n.s. | ||||
| Partnership order | 2.3 (0.07) | 1.7 (0.05) | *** | 2.0 (0.04) | 1.6 (0.05) | *** | ||||
| Relative exposure time in percent of total person months, time-variant partnership covariates and baseline variable | ||||||||||
| Employment statusc | *** | *** | ||||||||
| Non-employed | 23 % | 18 % | 23 % | 12 % | ||||||
| Full-time employed | 10 % | 24 % | 7 % | 28 % | ||||||
| Part-time employed | 18 % | 16 % | 21 % | 21 % | ||||||
| Missing information | 49 % | 41 % | 49 % | 40 % | ||||||
| Age of first child (baseline) | n.s. | n.s. | ||||||||
| 0–1 years | 33 % | 32 % | 29 % | 28 % | ||||||
| 2–5 years | 45 % | 44 % | 44 % | 43 % | ||||||
| 6 years and more | 22 % | 24 % | 27 % | 29 % | ||||||
| Further biological children | *** | *** | ||||||||
| No further child | 51 % | 69 % | 43 % | 58 % | ||||||
| One further child | 37 % | 28 % | 48 % | 37 % | ||||||
| Two or more further children | 12 % | 3 % | 10 % | 5 % | ||||||
| Number of subjects | 324 | 385 | 876 | 259 | ||||||
| Total exposure time | 21,878 | 27,387 | 68,870 | 21,412 | ||||||
| Number of separations | 87 | 92 | 111 | 40 | ||||||
Sources pairfam/DemoDiff (2008–2011), own estimates. Weighted by sample design weight (including corrections for birth cohort and place of residence)
Significance levels *** Pr (|T| > |t|) < 0.01; ** Pr (|T| > |t|) < 0.05; * Pr (|T| > |t|) < 0.10
aTwo-sample t tests with unequal variances
bEvaluated in wave 2 (pairfam/DemoDiff)
cEvaluated in wave 3 (Pairfam), wave 2 (DemoDiff)