Changes in Family Formation Trajectories of Russians Born in 1935-1984 and Factors of These Changes

Last few decades, Demographers have observed changes in the organization of the individual's life course in the sphere of family formation. This study is devoted to revealing Russia's position on the axis of family formation trajectories modernization, identifying the clusters of Russians depending on their matrimonial and reproductive behavior, analyzing the spread of family formation trajectories in the context of generations of Russians born in 1935-1984, finding out factors of choosing each trajectory. Parameters of family formation behavior available in the second wave of the international survey "Generation and Gender Program" demonstrated that Russia follows one way with European countries. The results of cluster analysis based on the panel data of Russian part of "Generation and Gender Survey" revealed 9 clusters of Russians according to the sequence and time of first cohabitation, marriage and firstborn. The trajectories "Early marriage, the birth of a child" and "Late marriage, the birth of a child" are the most common. More than 60% of the respondents from Soviet generations followed these two trajectories. In case of young generations, they were pushed by models of family formation, where early or late cohabitation precedes marriage and the trajectory "Cohabitation, the birth of a child". The frequencies of choosing the other four trajectories "No unions, no children", "No unions, the birth of a child", "Marriage, the birth of a child, cohabitation", and "At least one union, no children" are statistically stable for different generations. Multinomial logistic regression showed that the type of settlement, the level of education, the ages of separation from parents and the first job, gender, generation and matrimonial experience of parents are related to the choice of the family formation trajectory.