Parental Separation and Children’s Life Trajectories: A Cross-Country Analysis of Educational and Occupational Outcomes

Beatrice Cacciamani , University of Florence
Raffaele Guetto, University of Florence
Giampiero Passaretta, Universidad Pompeu Fabra

This study examines the heterogeneous impact of parental separation on children’s educational and occupational outcomes across European countries and birth cohorts. Using data from the 2019 and 2023 waves of the Intergenerational Transmission of Disadvantages Ad Hoc Module of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), it adopts a comparative perspective to analyze how the effects of family disruption vary by social origin, country, and cohort. A multilevel modeling strategy is applied to assess life trajectories, accounting for both individual and contextual factors. The analysis focuses on how the divorce penalty across different outcomes varies by social background. The effect is expected to be stronger among children from more privileged families when considering tertiary education attainment, as they have more resources to lose following separation. The study further extends existing research, which has mostly focused on educational outcomes, by examining occupational trajectories. Preliminary findings suggest that the occupational penalty of parental separation is largely mediated by respondents’ educational level, although cross-country and cohort variations remain to be tested. Drawing on the Second Demographic Transition framework, the study also investigates how the diffusion and social acceptance of divorce shape these patterns. Evidence from previous research suggests that in countries and cohorts where divorce is more prevalent and socially accepted, inequalities between children from intact and separated families may persist or even widen. By integrating social, institutional, and demographic dimensions, this research contributes to understanding how family instability affects intergenerational inequality in contemporary Europe.

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 Presented in Session P1. Families, Fertility, and the Life Course 1