title: The place of children in the history of couples.
abstract: "Does the multiplication of families outside wedlock increase poverty and aggravate the 'social problems' that emerge during adolescence, or does it normalize the position of children brought up in nontraditional families?...[The author] observes the place of children in the history of couples [in France].... The increase in the risk of breakdown of unions corresponds to a logic that is independent of fertility behaviour. Children are increasingly conceived by parents who already live [together], and the time of their birth is more and more often planned, but the presence of children thereafter has only a weak influence on the solidity of the union, except when the children are very young; children are no stronger a guarantee of the solidity of a union now than [they were] in the past."
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Toulemon
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D003710:Demography; D019049:Developed Countries; D004243:Divorce; D004467:Economics; D005060:Europe; D005298:Fertility; D005602:France; D007086:Illegitimacy; D008393:Marriage; D011153:Population; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D012940:Social Problems
keywords: Child Worth; Demographic Factors; Demographic Impact; Developed Countries; Divorce; Economic Factors; Europe; Fertility; France; Marriage; Mediterranean Countries; Microeconomic Factors; Nuptiality; Population; Population Dynamics; Premarital Pregnancy; Reproductive Behavior; Separation; Social Problems; Western Europe