Entering a Stepfamily - Family Reconstitution in Sweden 1970-2000

Jani Turunen, Stockholm University

This paper studies family reconstitution in Sweden between 1970 and 2000 with the child as unit of analysis. It sets out to analyze relative risks for entering a stepfamily or acquiring a stepparent after parental divorce or being born out of a union for children born between 1970 and 2000. The paper is based on longitudinal survey data from the Swedish Level of Living Surveys from 1991 and 2000. The tentative results show that half of Swedish children who have experienced family dissolution, or are born out of union, will have entered a stepfamily within 10 years with no significantly increased risk for different groups of mother’s education. The child’s age at the time when it became exposed to risk and the duration of life with a single parent show a negative effect, increasing with both age and duration. Being born outside of a parental union has no significant effect.