Effects of education on second births before and after societal transition: Evidence from the Estonian GGS

This article examines the influence of educational attainment and enrolment on second births in Estonia, comparing the patterns before and after the onset of the societal transformation of the 1990s. While many Northern and Western European countries have shown a positive relationship between female education and second births, this pattern has not been found in Central and East European countries. Against that background, Estonia offers an interesting case with noticeably high second birth intensities for highly educated women. In the state socialist period, after controlling for the influence of other characteristics, including the partner's education, women with tertiary education were found to have higher second birth intensity than women from any lower educational strata. In the postsocialist period, the difference has grown smaller, but women with tertiary education still display a significantly higher transition rate to second birth than their counterparts with secondary education. Following the presentation of empirical findings, the article discusses the mechanisms that could underlie the observed relationship between education and fertility decisions in the changing societal context. The analysis employs microdata from the Estonian Generations and Gender Survey (GGS), conducted in 2004-05.economic transition, educational attainment, Estonia, Generations and Gender Survey (GGS), second births

Reconciling studies of men’s gender attitudes and fertility

A reflexion by Westoff and Higgins (2009) in response to a study by Puur, Oláh, Tazi-Preve and Dorbritz (2008) has been recently published in this journal. Both articles addressed the relationship between men’s gender attitudes and fertility, using different datasets and quite different measures of gender attitudes, producing divergent results. Based on that, the authors of the reflexion suggested caution regarding the conclusion of the Puur et al. analysis. We respond to their arguments here by elaborating on the theoretical underpinnings of the claim presented in the original article and thus the importance of the differences of the measures of gender attitudes applied in the two studies (gender roles in the public sphere vs. the private sphere). With this contribution, we stress the need for further research on the association of men’s gender attitudes and fertility.Europe, fertility, gender attitudes, gender roles, men

Intergenerational family constellations in contemporary Europe

Demographic research has drawn attention to the multiple ways in which changes in mortality and childbearing have produced major shifts in intergenerational family structures. The aim of this article is to contribute to this body of research by analysing the data from the Generations and Gender Surveys for nine European countries. In the study, data pertaining to the availability of ascending (parents and grandparents) and descending kin (children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren) of the respondent are combined to shed light on the family structures in which indviduals are embedded at various stages of their lives. The findings provide new insights into the ways in which the past and present diversity of demographic regimes comes together into specific patterns of intergenerational family constellations across Europe. This convergence may yield family constellations of very similar “height†in countries with sharply contrasting demographic histories. The results also indicate that certain demographic scenarios may halt or temporarily reverse the trend towards the further vertical extension of family constellations.comparative studies, Europe, intergenerational family constellations, kin networks

First union formation in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania: patterns across countries and gender

This article examines the transformation of first union formation in the Baltic countries between the late 1960s and early 1990s, in the context of societal and family-level gender relations. The analyses employ microdata from the European Family and Fertility Surveys program. Our results on the trends indicate that in Estonia and Latvia the shift from direct marriage to cohabitation started well before the fall of socialist regime. Event-history models provide support for a hypothesised association between union formation and gender system, with Lithuania showing more traditional features in both respect, plausibly embedded in long-standing cultural differences between the countries.Baltic countries, gender system, union formation

Fertility Intentions and Views on Gender Roles: Russian Women in Estonia from an Origin-destination Perspective

In this article we investigate fertility intentions of Russian women in Estonia from an origin-destination perspective. Russian migrants to Estonia and their descendants are compared with women in the sending and host countries in order to identify similarities and differences in intended transitions to first, second and third births. The study is based on the Estonian and Russian Generations and Gender Surveys, which were conducted in 2004/2005, and employs logistic regression models. The dependent variables are intentions to become a mother, to have a second child, or to have a third child. The hypotheses for the study are mainly derived from the adaptation, cultural maintenance, and selection (characteristics) perspectives. We also incorporate attitudes towards gender roles into the models, which have proven to be a salient factor in shaping childbearing intentions, but have seldom been considered in studies of migrant fertility.Our results lend support to both the adaptation and cultural maintenance perspectives. In accord with the latter, the similarity between the childbearing intentions of Russian migrants and their descendants in Estonia and those of their counterparts in Russia suggests that socialisation to the ethnic subculture has prevailed over the influence of the host society. We attribute this outcome to contextual features that have retarded integration processes. By contrast, we observe that proficiency in the host country language, residence in areas where the host population constitutes a large majority and having a native partner significantly contribute to the adaptation of migrants’ intentions to have another child to those of the host population. These results provide support to the adaptation argument. Finally, our study reveals a positive association between egalitarian views on gender roles and women’s intentions to have another child. However, variation in gender role attitudes accounts for a relatively minor part of the difference in intended fertility between the groups addressed in this study.* This article belongs to a special issue on migrant fertility

Demographic Development of the Ingrian National Minority in Estonia,

The article focuses on the demographic development af the Ingrian minority in Estonia.In a broader framework the research underlying the article originates from acomparative study af national minority populations, coordinated by the EuropeanPopulation Committee. The article starts with a short overview af major changes inthe ethnic composition af the Estonian population, covering the implications af theSecond World War on national minorities and the emergence af aforeign-origin population.The analysis af the Ingrian minority draws on the data from the Estoniannational minority survey. Building on the life course approach and event history methodology,the survey was designed ta retrospectively reconstruct the trends in majordemographic processes and follow the continuity af minority-specific characteristicsacross three successive generations. The article discusses the size and age structureaf the Ingrian population, fertility and mortality patterns, ethnic intermarriage, languageand religious affiliation. The results emphasize that national minority populationstend ta follow distinct pathways af population development, which are different,from the patterns characteristic af the majority population as well asfrom those foundin the countries af historical origin. Also, the analysis clearly revealed long-termconsequences imposed by the loss af their homeland and their dispersal

Population-related Policies in Estonia in the 20th Century: Stages and Turning Points

This article is about the experience of population-related policies in Estonia. During the recent decade much has been published on this theme, usually with an analysis of currently enforced regulations. Repeated amendments of legal norms and procedures, which are inevitable in a period of fundamental reforms, however, tend to limit their value quite rapidly. Against such a background, this paper applies a longer perspective with an attempt to cover the main stages and turning points in the development of population-related policies in the country since the establishment of statehood in 1918. In the interwar period, the efforts to build up a modern nation included setting up relevant institutions and regulations in the ? eld of population-related policies. These undertakings have been seldom discussed in the recent publications. Somewhat similarly, the postwar decades are frequently regarded as fairly distant and of little relevance to present challenges. To understand the developments, however, the longer view should not be neglected. Todays concerns are rooted in the arrangements and disarrangements of the past, and no less importantly, such continuity is strengthened by the nature of population development and the ? ow of cohorts which absorb the in? uences of the societal environment and carry them along through their lifetime. The article is structured in four sections focusing on the development of marriage and the family, children and fertility, the pension system and social welfare, and the health care system. In each section, the aim is to outline successive policy regimes and their main characteristics in terms of objectives and methods of regulations. Understandably, limited space does not allow coverage of minor changes and technicalities, so for more speci? c information the article provides further reference to various source materials

Men's childbearing desires and views of the male role in Europe at the dawn of the 21st century

The development of modern family patterns of the past decades has been accompanied by substantial changes in social norms, values and gender relations. There is theoretical support for the assumption that the persistence of low fertility levels across Europe is likely to be linked to the incomplete gender revolution, more specifically to the lack of, or only limited changes in the male gender role as opposed to women’s role. In order to have a deeper understanding of the development of fertility, we aim to shed more light on the impact of men’s role orientation on their fertility intentions in this study. Our analyses include men aged 20-44 years in eight countries: Austria, Estonia, East Germany, West Germany, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Poland. The data are extracted from the Population Policy Acceptance Study of the early 2000s. Examining within-country differences, we find that men with egalitarian attitudes seem to have higher fertility aspirations than their traditional counterparts in contemporary Europe. This is supported by both the descriptive and the multivariate analyses. The picture is somewhat less conclusive though when we focus on country-rankings by intended family size and by the prevalence of egalitarian versus traditional attitudes.childbearing intentions, Europe, fatherhood, gender system, men

Longevity of World War II Estonian volunteers in the Finnish Army: A follow-up study of the impact of the post-war life course and repressions

Background: The existing literature pertaining to the long-term effects of war-related adversities on longevity is almost exclusively covering veterans from Western countries, while little is known about the longevity of surviving veterans in Eastern Europe. Objective: We analyse the effects of the post-war life course, including politically motivated repressions, on the longevity of a group of WWII participants - Estonian volunteers in the Finnish Army. Methods: We use a follow-up database of individual-level life histories of 3,352 Estonian men who served in the Finnish Army during WWII. The war and its aftermath divided them into several subgroups in a way that resembles a natural experiment. Using Cox proportional hazards models, we compare the mortality risks of subgroups whose members lived in different contexts after WWII. Results: The marked advantage in longevity of veterans who lived in exile in Western countries relative to those who stayed in Estonia reveals an impact of the macrosocial environment on longevity. The results also show immediate and delayed effects of repressions on longevity. Excess risk associated with repression emerged several decades after exposure, while the scarring effect later disappeared representing cohort inversion. Conclusions: The results corroborate that the sequelae of war-related repressions affect the surviving population for many decades, while the scarring effects may remain undetected in the presence of other mechanisms, such as selection based on differential mortality. Contribution: The article presents the results of the first long-term follow-up study on the mortality effects of a group of WWII veterans from the Eastern bloc

Fertility Development in the Baltic Countries Since 1990: a Transformation in the Context of Long-term Trends

The article addresses the transformation of fertility patterns in the Baltic countries since the turn of the 1990s, in the context of long-term trends. The purpose of the study is to compare the change in fertility level, parity distribution, timing of childbearing, and the connection between marriage and childbearing in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and analyze the position of the Baltic countries in a broader European perspective. Our results indicate a salient role of tempo effects in the sharp decline of period fertility measures that occurred in the region in the 1990s. Tempo-adjusted measures indicate moderately low fertility levels of 1.6-1.7 children per woman in the region. In the recent years, fertility levels have been rising in all three countries with recuperation being more vigorous in Estonia and less so in Lithuania. Estonia and Latvia also appear more advanced in terms of the spread of childbearing among cohabiting couples, with the proportion of non-marital births comparable to Scandinavian countries. The article discusses the factors underlying the observed similarities and dissimilarities in fertility patterns, pointing to the plausible demographic path dependence