Consequences of changing partnership behaviour on fertility carrier: Hungary as an example of transformed post-communist societies

Zsolt Speder, Demographic Research Institute, Budapest

Our research investigates the interrelation of the two basic processes of family formation: partnership and fertility behaviour. The stress will be on the influence of changing partnership behaviour (the diffusion of cohabitation) on starting fertility carrier (becoming parent). A cohort specific use of the retrospective data of the Hungarian panel survey “Turning points of the Life Course” from 2001/2002 enables us to show two type of postponement: firstly the well known postponement of entering motherhood (first child) and signs of lowering propensity to receive the second child. The focus on the first partnership context (the diffusion of cohabitation) enables us to detect how changes in partnership behaviour, namely the rapid increase of starting the partnership carriers in cohabitation could contributed to fertility decline. The influence of education will be taken into consideration and enables us to formulate some hypothesis about the relation of demographic change and social structure.