Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

New Perspectives on Family Formation: What Can We Learn from Sequence Analysis?

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Advances in Sequence Analysis: Theory, Method, Applications

Part of the book series: Life Course Research and Social Policies ((LCRS,volume 2))

Abstract

Due to its rapid technical development over the past two decades, sequence analysis has partly lost sight of its theoretical motivation in the social sciences as originally formulated by Andrew Abbott. How exactly is the sequential approach helping us to inform core theoretical debates in the social sciences? Taking the life course paradigm as a starting point, this chapter argues that insights gained from sequence analysis can uniquely contribute to three theoretical concerns in family formation research: First, multidimensional lives, that is primarily the study of parallel family and employment trajectories; second, linked lives, i.e. how family formation unfolds in the context of networks of shared relationships; and third, how macro-structural contexts shape the de-standardization and pluralization of family formation. This chapter reviews the respective sequence analysis literature. I conclude that sequence analysis is most promising in further advancing insights on family formation when applied in rigorous research designs that incorporate the broader premises of the life course paradigm and narrative positivism. To illustrate the argument, I present a study on the de-standardization of family formation before and after the German Reunification. This case study explores constellations of macro structural context factors (multiple-way interactions) to theorize the de-standardization of family formation and proposes a new method for establishing within and between group differences in sequences.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Narrative is understood in a generic sense as a process or story (Abbott 1992, p. 428) and does not involve complexity of meaning that is inherently unformalizable as in qualitative research. It instead refers to a processual, action-based approach to social reality and formalization should be used to the extent that it advances sociological insight.

  2. 2.

    For a full account of narrative positivism see Abbott (1988, 1992, 2001).

  3. 3.

    Cross-level interactions, often of primary theoretical interest, add another layer of complexity.

  4. 4.

    Han and Moen (1999) were the first to calculate separate distance matrices for each dimension and the adding them up in an application on retirement.

  5. 5.

    Employment patterns have greatly changed as well but much of this change is expressed in different qualitative patterns, such as a higher prevalence of part-time work in some countries and not in an increase in the quantity of variability across the life course.

  6. 6.

    There was also broad support for unwed mothers that favored access to housing and parental leave, which set incentives for premarital births and a delay of marriage for the one-year period of these provisions (Huinink et al. 1995).

  7. 7.

    Note that hypotheses 1 and 2 imply stable standardization of family formation across all of Germany as a compositional outcome of a more sizeable de-standardization in the smaller East German population and moderate re-standardization in the larger West German population.

  8. 8.

    The East German sample of the cohort born 1971 includes women who were born in the GDR and living in East Germany in 1990.

  9. 9.

    There were few deviations and in most cases there was only a few months difference in the timing of a change in partnership status.

  10. 10.

    Divorced and widowed are combined, because widowhood occurs very rarely in this relatively young sample.

  11. 11.

    For Lesnard’s dynamic Hamming distance, substitution costs depend on time point specific transition rates between family formation states, which can vary across bootstrap samples. As a result, the absolute transition costs can vary across bootstrap samples, but the principle of deriving them always remains the same.

References

  • Aassve, A., Billari, F. C., & Piccarreta, R. (2007). Strings of adulthood: A sequence analysis of young British Women’s work-family trajectories. European Journal of Population/ Revue européenne de Démographie, 23(3–4), 369–388. doi:10.1007/s10680-007-9134-6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Abbott, A. (1992). From causes to events: Notes on narrative positivism. Sociological Methods & Research, 20(4), 428–455. doi:10.1177/0049124192020004002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Abbott, A. (1988). Transcending general linear reality. Sociological Theory, 6(2), 169–186.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Abbott, A. (2001). Time matters. On theory and method. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Abell, P. (1993). Some aspects of narrative method. The Journal of Mathematical Sociology, 18(2–3), 93–124.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Abell, P. (2004). Narrative explanation: An alternative to variable-centered explanation? Annual Review of Sociology, 30(1), 287–310. doi:10.1146/annurev.soc.29.010202.100113.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aisenbrey, S., & Fasang, A. E. (2010). New life for old ideas: The “second wave” of sequence analysis. Bringing the “course” back into the life course. Sociological Methods & Research, 38(3), 420–462. doi:10.1177/0049124109357532.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Amato, P. R., & DeBoer, D. D. (2001). The transmission of marital instability across generations: Relationship skills or commitment to marriage? Journal of Marriage and Family, 63(4), 1038–1051.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beck, U. (1992). Risk society: Towards a new modernity. London: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bell, D. (1973). The coming of post-industrial society. A venture in social forecasting. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bengtson, V. L. (2001). Beyond the nuclear family: The increasing importance of multigenerational bonds. Journal of Marriage and Family, 63(1), 1–16. doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2001.00001.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Biemann, T., Fasang, A. E., & Grunow, D. (2011). Do economic globalization and industry growth destabilize careers? An analysis of career complexity and career patterns over time. Organization Studies, 32(12), 1639–1663. doi:10.1177/0170840611421246.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Billari, F. C. (2001a). Sequence analysis in demographic research. Canadian Studies in Population, 28(2), 439–458.

    Google Scholar 

  • Billari, F. C. (2001b). The analysis of early Life courses: Complex descriptions of the transition to adulthood. Journal Of Population Research, 18(2), 119–142.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Billari, F. C., & Liefbroer, A. C. (2010). Towards a new pattern of transition to adulthood? Advances in Life Course Research, 15(2–3), 59–75. doi:10.1016/j.alcr.2010.10.003.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Billingsley, S. (2010). The post-communist fertility puzzle. Population research and policy review, 29(2), 193–231. doi:10.1007/s11113-009-9136-7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonetti, M., Piccarreta, R., & Salford, G. (2013). Parametric and nonparametric analysis of life courses: An application to family formation patterns. Demography, 50(3), 881–902. doi:10.1007/s13524-012-0191-z.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bras, H., Liefbroer, A. C., & Elzinga, C. H. (2010). Standardization of pathways to adulthood? An analysis of Dutch cohorts born between 1850 and 1900. Demography, 47(4), 1013–1034. doi:10.1007/BF03213737.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brückner, H. (2004). Gender inequality in the life course: Social change and stability in West Germany 1975–1995. New York: Walter de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brückner, H. (2007). Temporal and contextual dynamics in adolescent risk behavior. Paper presented at the ASA methodology section spring meeting.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brückner, H., & Mayer, K. U. (2005). The de-standardization of the life course: What it might mean and if it means anything whether it actually took place. In R. Macmillan (Ed.), The structure of the life course. Standardized? Individualized? Differentiated? (pp. 27–54). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brüderl, J. (2004). Die Pluralisierung partnerschaftlicher Lebensformen in Westdeutschland und Europa. Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, 19, 3–10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brzinsky-Fay, C., & Kohler, U. (Eds.). (2010). New developments in sequence analysis. Sociological Methods and Research, 38(3), 359–364.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brzinsky-Fay, C., Kohler, U., & Luniak, M. (2006). Sequence analysis using stata. The Stata Journal, 6(4), 435–460.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buchmann, M. C., & Kriesi, I. (2011). Transition to adulthood in Europe. Annual Review of Sociology, 37(1), 481–503. doi:10.1146/annurev-soc-081309-150212.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Card, N. A., Selig, J. P., & Little, T. D. (Eds.). (2008). Modeling dyadic and interdependent data in the developmental and behavioral sciences. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coleman, D. (2004). Why we don’t have to believe without doubting in the “ Second Demographic Transition ”— some agnostic comments. Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, 2, 11–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cook, T. D., & Furstenberg, F. F. (2002). Explaining aspects of the transition to adulthood in Italy, Sweden, Germany, and the United States: A cross-disciplinary case synthesis approach. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, 580(1), 257–287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diewald, M., Goedicke, A., & Mayer, K. U. (2006). After the fall of the wall. Life courses in the transformation of East Germany. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Dijkstra, W., & Taris, T. (1995). Measuring the agreement between sequences. Sociological Methods & Research, 24(2), 214–231. doi:10.1177/0049124195024002004.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Efron, B., & Tibshirani, R. (1993). An introduction to the bootstrap. London: Chapman & Hall.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Elder, G. H. (1994). Time, human agency, and social change: Perspectives on the life course. Social Psychology Quarterly, 57(1), 4–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elder, G. H., Johnson, M. K., & Crosnoe, R. (2003). The Emergence and Development of Life Course Theory. In J. T. Mortimer & M. J. Shanahan (Eds.), Handbook of the life course (pp. 3–19). New York: Kluwer Academic/Penlum Publishers.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Elzinga, C. H. (2003). Sequence similarity: A nonaligning technique. Sociological Methods & Research, 32(1), 3–29. doi:10.1177/0049124103253373.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Elzinga, C. H., & Liefbroer, A. C. (2007). De-standardization of family-life trajectories of young adults: A cross-national comparison using sequence analysis. European Journal of Population/ Revue européenne de Démographie, 23(3–4), 225–250. doi:10.1007/s10680-007-9133-7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Esping-Andersen, G. (1990). The three worlds of welfare capitalism. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fasang, A. E. (2012). Retirement patterns and income inequality. Social Forces, 90(3), 685–711. doi:10.1093/sf/sor015.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fasang, A. E., & Raab, M. (2013). Beyond intergenerational transmission: Intergenerational patterns of family formation. Accepted at Demography New Orleans. http://paa2013.princeton.edu/papers/132178. Accessed 24 Sept 2013.

  • Gabadinho, A., Ritschard, G., Müller, N. S., & Studer, M. (2011). Analyzing and visualizing state sequences in R with TraMineR. Journal of Statistical Software, 40(4), 1–37.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gauthier, J.-A., Widmer, E. D., Bucher, P., & Notredame, C. (2010). Multichannel sequence analysis applied to social science data. Sociological Methodology, 40(1), 1–38. http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/j.1467-9531.2010.01227.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goldstein, J. R., & Kreyenfeld, M. (2011). Has East Germany overtaken West Germany? Recent trends in order-specific fertility. Population and development review, 37(3), 453–472.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Han, S.-K., & Moen, P. (1999). Clocking out: Temporal patterning of retirement. American Journal of Sociology, 105(1), 191–236.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hedström, P., & Bearman, P. (Eds.). (2009). The oxford handbook of analytical sociology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huinink, J. (2011). New patterns or no patterns? Changing family development and family life in Europe. Studi interdisciplinari sulla famiglia, 25, 49–70.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huinink, J., Mayer, K. U., Solga, H., Sørensen, A., & Trappe, H. (1995). Kollektiv und Eigensinn. Lebensverläufe in der DDR und danach. Berlin: Akademie Verlag.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kenny, D. A., Kashy, D. A., & Cook, W. L. (2006). Dyadic data analysis. New York: The Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohler, H.-P., Billari, F. C., & Ortega, J. A. (2002). The emergence of lowest-low fertility in Europe during the 1990s. Population and Development Review, 28(4), 641–680.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kohli, M. (1985). Die Institutionalisierung des Lebenslaufs. Historische Befunde und theoretische Argumente. Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie, 37(1), 1–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lesnard, L. (2008). Off-scheduling within dual-earner couples: An unequal and negative externality for family time 1. American Journal of Sociology, 114(2), 447–490.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lesnard, L. (2010). Setting cost in optimal matching to uncover contemporaneous socio-temporal patterns. Sociological Methods & Research, 38(3), 389–419. doi:10.1177/0049124110362526.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lesnard, L., Cousteaux, A.-S., Chanvril, F., & Le Hay, V. (2010). Do transitions to adulthood converge in Europe? An optimal matching analysis of work-family trajectories of young adults from 20 European countries. SciencesPo. Working paper 2010–2004.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lesthaeghe, R. (2010). The unfolding story of the second demographic transition. Population and development review, 36(2), 211–251.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liefbroer, A. C., & Elzinga, C. H. (2012). Intergenerational transmission of behavioural patterns: How similar are parents’ and children’s demographic trajectories? Advances in Life Course Research, 17(1), 1–10. doi:10.1016/j.alcr.2012.01.002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lyngstad, T. H., & Prskawetz, A. (2010). Do siblings’ fertility decisions influence each other? Demography, 47(4), 923–934.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mayer, K. U. (2004). Whose lives? How history, societies, and institutions define and shape life courses. Research in Human Development, 1(3), 161–187.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mayer, K. U. (2008). Retrospective longitudinal research: The German life history study. In S. Menard (Ed.), Handbook of longitudinal research: Design, measurement and analysis (pp. 85–106). San Diego: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayer, K. U. (2009). New directions in life course research. Annual Review of Sociology, 35, 413–433.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McLanahan, S., & Percheski, C. (2008). Family structure and the reproduction of inequalities. Annual Review of Sociology, 34(1), 257–276. doi:10.1146/annurev.soc.34.040507.134549.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moen, P., & Roehling, P. V. (2005). Career mystique: Cracks in the American dream. Oxford: Rowman & Littfield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moen, P., & Sweet, S. (2004). From ’work-family’ to flexible careers’. A life course reframing. Community, Work & Family, 7(2), 209–226.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Müller, N. S., Sapin, M., Gauthier, J.-A., Orita, A., & Widmer, E. D. (2012). Pluralized life courses? An exploration of the life trajectories of individuals with psychiatric disorders. The International journal of social psychiatry, 58(3), 266–277. doi:10.1177/0020764010393630.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pasteels, I., & Mortelmans, D. (2013). A dyadic analysis of repartnering after divorce. Do children matter? Paper presented at the workshop on “life-course transitions after separation”, Berlin, July 4 and 5, 2013.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pollock, G. (2007). Holistic trajectories: a study of combined employment, housing and family careers by using multiple-sequence analysis. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society), 170(1), 167–183. doi:10.1111/j.1467-985X.2006.00450.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prince Cooke, L. (2004). The gendered division of labor and family outcomes in Germany. Journal of Marriage and Family, 66(5), 1246–1259.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raab, M., Fasang, A. E., Karhula, A., & Erola, J. (2013). Similarity of siblings’ family formation. Paper prepared for the 2013 XVII IUSSP International Population Conference Busan, Republic of Korea. http://www.iussp.org/sites/default/files/event_call_for_papers/2013_IUSSP_extended_abstract_Erola_etal_0.pdf. Accessed 24 Sept 2013.

  • Rihoux, B., & Ragin, C. C. (Eds.). (2009). Configurational comparative methods. Qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) and related techniques. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Robette, N. (2010). The diversity of pathways to adulthood in France: Evidence from a holistic approach. Advances in Life Course Research, 15(2–3), 89–96. doi:10.1016/j.alcr.2010.04.002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robette, N., Bry, X., & Leliévre, È. (2013). Like mother, like daughter? A dyadic sequence analysis approach to uncover patterns of mothers and daughters careers. http://nicolas.robette.free.fr/Docs/Mother_daughter_RobetteBryLelievre.pdf. Accessed 24 Sept 2013.

  • Savage, M. (2009). Contemporary sociology and the challenge of descriptive assemblage. European Journal of Social Theory, 12(1), 155–174. doi:10.1177/1368431008099650.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sennett, R. (1998). Corrosion of character. The personal consequences of work in the new capitalism. New York: W.W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Settersten, R. A., & Mayer, K. U. (1997). The measurement of age, age structuring, and the life course. Annual Review of Sociology, 23, 233–261.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sobotka, T. (2003). Re-emerging diversity: Rapid fertility changes in Central Europe collapse of the communist regimes. Population, 58(4), 451–485.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stovel, K., Savage, M., & Bearman, P. (1996). Ascription into achievement: Models of career systems at Lloyds bank, 1890–1970. American Journal of Sociology, 102(2), 358–399.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Studer, M., Ritschard, G., Gabadinho, A., & Müller, N. S. (2011). Discrepancy analysis of state sequences. Sociological Methods & Research, 40, 471. doi:10.1177/0049124111415372.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Widmer, E. D. (2010). Family configurations. A structural approach to family diversity. London: Ashgate Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Widmer, E. D., & Ritschard, G. (2009). The de-standardization of the life course: Are men and women equal? Advances in Life Course Research, 14, 28–39. doi:10.1016/j.alcr.2009.04.001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

I thank Felix Bühlmann, Marcel Raab, and Frans Willekens for detailed and thoughtful comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript. This chapter benefited from previous collaboration on sequence analysis and countless fruitful discussions with Silke Aisenbrey and Tim F Liao. The arguments and empirical study in this chapter were greatly influenced by the guidance of two exceptional mentors: Hannah Brückner and Karl Ulrich Mayer. I gratefully acknowledge support from the Max-Planck Institute for Demographic Research that provided a wonderful academic environment for a research visit, during which most of this chapter was written. The usual disclaimer applies.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Social Science, Humboldt University Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Anette Eva Fasang

  2. Demography and Inequality, WZB Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB), Berlin, Germany

    Anette Eva Fasang

Authors
  1. Anette Eva Fasang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anette Eva Fasang .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Inst of Political & International Studies, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Austria

    Philippe Blanchard

  2. Centre LINES/LIVES, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Austria

    Felix Bühlmann

  3. Centre LINES/LIVES, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Austria

    Jacques-Antoine Gauthier

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer New York Heidelberg Dordrecht London

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Fasang, A. (2014). New Perspectives on Family Formation: What Can We Learn from Sequence Analysis?. In: Blanchard, P., Bühlmann, F., Gauthier, JA. (eds) Advances in Sequence Analysis: Theory, Method, Applications. Life Course Research and Social Policies, vol 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04969-4_6

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation