Volume 24 - Article 31 | Pages 771–800  

Divorce risk factors and their variation over time in Spain

By Fabrizio Bernardi, Juan-Ignacio Martínez-Pastor

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyse the determinants of marriage dissolution in Spain and their variation over time for women married between 1949 and 2006. Data are drawn from the Survey of Fertility, Family and Values of 2006. The article analyses the transition from first marriage to marital dissolution for couples who married in two eras: one prior to the Divorce Law of 1981, during which social and legal barriers to dissolution were many, and one in the period after the law was introduced, during which barriers to marriage dissolution were far fewer. Analyses are conducted using a continuous time event history model. The results indicate some similarities between Spain and other countries, such as the positive relationship between the typical features of unconventional families and marital dissolution, but also some specific differences, such as an increase in the importance of premarital pregnancy and/or not having children. It is also important to stress the declining importance of socio-economic variables, such as education and the labour market situation of women.

Author's Affiliation

• Fabrizio Bernardi - European University Institute, Italy EMAIL
• Juan-Ignacio Martínez-Pastor - Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Spain EMAIL

Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research

Parental education, divorce, and children’s educational attainment: Evidence from a comparative analysis
Volume 46 - Article 3

The long-term consequences of parental divorce for children’s educational attainment
Volume 30 - Article 61

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