10.17045/sthlmuni.12102528.v1
Caroline Uggla
Caroline
Uggla
Ben Wilson
Ben
Wilson
Age gaps between partners among immigrants and their descendants: Adaptation across time and generations?
Stockholm University
2020
Age difference
Partnership
Adaptation
Immigrants
Descendants of immigrants
Intermarriage
Stockholm Reports in Demography
Sociologiska institutionen
Department of Sociology
SUDA
Stockholm University Demography Unit
Stockholms universitets demografiska avdelning
Demography not elsewhere classified
Sociology
2020-04-09 08:38:33
Preprint
https://su.figshare.com/articles/preprint/Age_gaps_between_partners_among_immigrants_and_their_descendants_Adaptation_across_time_and_generations_/12102528
<p>Age gaps between partners – who are married, cohabitating
or in childbearing unions – have undergone dramatic changes in high-income
countries over the past century. Yet there has been little focus on this aspect
of family behaviour for immigrants and their descendants. We argue that this is
an important omission, not least because the mean age gaps across generations can
be interpreted as a macro-level indicator of adaptation. Our study examines the
age gaps of immigrants and their descendants in Sweden, a country with high
gender equality and a stable mean age gap. Since the late 1960s, Swedish men
have been around 2 years older, on average, than their female partners. Using
longitudinal data for the whole population of Sweden, we examine changes in age
gaps for cohorts born 1950-1986. We show that cohort trends in age gaps often
follow very different patterns for male and female immigrant groups, with
limited evidence of adaptation across cohorts. However, there is considerable evidence
of adaptation toward the Swedish norm for the second generation, including when
making a direct comparison between immigrants and their children, although more
so for male immigrants, in part due to patterns of partnership with the
Swedish-born. </p>