Parental separation and family formation in early adulthood: Evidence from Italy

There is a considerable literature on the effects parental divorce has on several child outcomes such as age at marriage, marriage stability, cohabitation and attitudes toward divorce. Such literature is much less wide where prevalence of divorce has remained relatively low. This happens in Italy, even though in the recent past, we observed a rapid increase of separations also in this country where the phenomenon is acquiring social relevance. The aim of this work is to understand whether in early adulthood, the sons and daughters of separated parents behave differently from other young adults in terms of leaving home, entering into partnerships and becoming parents. We also investigate the mechanisms by means of which parental separation affects family behaviour of young people.The empirical results suggest that parental separation appears to accelerate the transition to more individualistic and progressively less traditional behaviours of family formation.