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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Aug 8.
Published in final edited form as: Annu Rev Sociol. 2017 May 19;43:473–492. doi: 10.1146/annurev-soc-060116-053442

Table 1.

Key aspects/phases of the SDT and recent elaborations

Basic features of the SDT (van de Kaa 1987) Phases of the SDT (Lesthaeghe 1995) Elaborations of SDT in response to conflicting empirical evidence and criticism from peers (Lesthaeghe 2010)
The weakening of marriage as the only type of family structure, resulting from high divorce rates and a rise in cohabitation.
Shift in family relations from ‘king-child with parents’ to ‘king-couple with child’.
A shift from preventive contraception to self-fulfilling contraception.
The uniform family (the conjugal family) starts giving way to more pluralistic forms of families.		 Phase I (1955 – 1970): Increasing divorce; fertility decline; contraceptive revolution; stop in declining age at marriage.
Phase II (1970–1985): Rise in premarital cohabitation; rise in non-marital fertility.
Phase III (1985-onward): Divorce rates plateau; decline in remarriage; recuperation of 30+ fertility, which pushes period fertility rates up.

  1. Variable rates of change,

  2. Variable developmental paths,

  3. Some heterogeneity in the end stage