Volume 33 - Article 30 | Pages 871–908
Socio-economic determinants of divorce in Lithuania: Evidence from register-based census-linked data
By Ausra Maslauskaite, Aiva Jasilioniene, Domantas Jasilionis, Vladislava Stankuniene, Vladimir Shkolnikov
Abstract
Background: Most existing evidence on the socio-economic predictors of divorce in developed countries comes from the USA and from Western and Northern Europe. This study contributes to the scarce literature about socio-economic determinants of divorce in Central and Eastern Europe by examining the case of Lithuania.
Objective: The study explores how the levels of educational attainment and economic activity, as well as the interactions of these two variables, influence the risk of first divorce both in the entire population of Lithuania and in its urban and rural sub-populations.
Methods: The study uses a census-linked dataset connecting all records from the 2001 census and all first divorce records between the census and December 2003. The impact of education and employment status on the risk of divorce was estimated by applying Poisson regression models.
Results: Lower education is related to elevated risks of divorce only in large cities: in rural areas the relationship is inverted. For both urban and rural males, being out of the labor market destabilizes marriage and significantly increases the risk of marital disruption. This pattern was also found for males residing in large cities, regardless of their education. As expected, a lower divorce risk is observed among both urban and rural housewives and other inactive urban females. Unemployment and disability-related inactivity is associated with higher divorce probabilities among rural females.
Conclusions: The study finds evidence of individual socio-economic recourses having substantial differentiating effects on first divorce risk in Lithuania. The direction and size of these effects vary notably by sex and place of residence. This suggests that divorce determinants are complex in post-transitional societies in the region.
Author’s Affiliation
- Ausra Maslauskaite - Lithuanian Social Research Centre, Lithuania EMAIL
- Aiva Jasilioniene - Max-Planck-Institut für Demografische Forschung, Germany EMAIL
- Domantas Jasilionis - Max-Planck-Institut für Demografische Forschung, Germany EMAIL
- Vladislava Stankuniene - Lithuanian Social Research Centre, Lithuania EMAIL
- Vladimir Shkolnikov - Max-Planck-Institut für Demografische Forschung, Germany EMAIL
Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research
Two-dimensional contour decomposition: Decomposing mortality differences into initial difference and trend components by age and cause of death
Volume 50 - Article 41
Lithuania: Fertility decline and its determinants
Volume 19 - Article 20
Estimates of mortality and population changes in England and Wales over the two World Wars
Volume 13 - Article 16
Explaining the rural-urban gap in infant mortality in India
Volume 29 - Article 18
Fertility Reactions to the "Great Recession" in Europe: Recent Evidence from Order-Specific Data
Volume 29 - Article 4
Components and possible determinants of decrease in Russian mortality in 2004-2010
Volume 28 - Article 32
Changes in educational differentials in old-age mortality in Finland and Sweden between 1971-1975 and 1996-2000
Volume 26 - Article 19
Levels of recent union formation : Six European countries compared
Volume 22 - Article 9
Union formation and fertility in Bulgaria and Russia: A life table description of recent trends
Volume 19 - Article 62
Official population statistics and the Human Mortality Database estimates of populations aged 80+ in Germany and nine other European countries
Volume 13 - Article 14
Introduction to the Special Collection “Human Mortality over Age, Time, Sex, and Place:
The 1st HMD Symposium”
Volume 13 - Article 10
Geographical diversity of cause-of-death patterns and trends in Russia
Volume 12 - Article 13
A summary of Special Collection 2: Determinants of Diverging Trends in Mortality
Volume 10 - Article 12
Educational differentials in male mortality in Russia and northern Europe: A comparison of an epidemiological cohort from Moscow and St. Petersburg with the male populations of Helsinki and Oslo
Volume 10 - Article 1
Gini coefficient as a life table function: Computation from discrete data, decomposition of differences and empirical examples
Volume 8 - Article 11
Life expectancy in two Caucasian countries. How much due to overestimated population?
Volume 5 - Article 7
Russian mortality beyond vital statistics: Effects of social status and behaviours on deaths from circulatory disease and external causes - a case-control study of men aged 20-55 years in Urdmurtia, 1998-99
Special Collection 2 - Article 4
Introduction to the Special Collection of papers on "Determinants of diverging trends in mortality"
Special Collection 2 - Article 1
Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research
Education, religion, and male fertility in sub-Saharan Africa: A descriptive analysis
Volume 53 - Article 8
| Keywords:
education,
male fertility,
polygyny,
religion,
sub-Saharan Africa
Examining the relationships between education, coresidential unions, and the fertility gap by simulating the reproductive life courses of Dutch women
Volume 52 - Article 24
| Keywords:
contraception,
education,
fertility,
GGS,
life course,
LISS,
microsimulation,
Netherlands,
physiology,
unions
Demographic convergence in marriage timing: Intersecting gender and educational expansion
Volume 52 - Article 14
| Keywords:
age at marriage,
convergence,
cross-country,
education,
gender,
union formation
Decriminalization of adultery likely changed women’s views on divorce following spousal infidelity in South Korea
Volume 52 - Article 4
| Keywords:
adultery law,
divorce,
Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women’s Families,
marriage law,
South Korea
Left behind single in the partnering market? Entry into cohabiting unions by women and men with low educational attainment across regions of Europe, cohorts 1960 to 1985
Volume 51 - Article 43
| Keywords:
cohabitation,
education,
Europe,
European Social Survey,
event history analysis,
logistic regression,
marginalization,
partner selection,
singlehood,
union formation
Cited References: 59
Download to Citation Manager
PubMed
Google Scholar