Social background, social mobility,and becoming a parent in Sweden

The purpose of this study is to examine what effect social background may have on the timing of becoming a parent in Sweden. By applying event-history techniques to data from the Swedish level of living survey (LNU) we try to separate the direct from the indirect effect of social background on timing of first childbearing. Few previous studies have focused on characteristics of social background and analysis of intergenerational effects on the age of becoming a parent. In this study, we show that the risk of becoming a parent is different for those who are mobile than for the socially non-mobile. The effect of social background on the propensity of becoming a parent is not just indirect via persons own educational careers. When we control for own educational level much of the impact of social background on the propensity of becoming a parent remains. We clearly show the existence of a significant direct effect of social background on the propensity to become a parent.