Arnaud Régnier-Loilier – författare

This book provides a portrait of the family in France today, revealing many of the deep-seated, demographic changes that have affected French society in recent decades. It first focuses on conjugal and family trajectories, examining union formation, types of union, entry into parenthood, influence of religion, and separation. Next, the book explores domestic organization within the couple. It looks at gender differences in attitudes to task-sharing, division of household and parenting tasks, influence of past partnership history, and changes after a birth.

The book presents a series of studies based on the French version of the international Generations and Gender Survey, a major comparative research project conducted in 20 countries to collect information from individuals aged 18-79 about relationships and processes in the life course. Inside, readers will find insightful analysis of the survey results by sociologists, demographers, and economists, and come to better understand recent demographic and social developments in France as well as the factors influencing them.

The book will appeal to a broad audience of students and researchers interested in family, gender, and intergenerational relations. In addition, as the survey data are comparable across countries, the book will provide researchers with ideas for further research opportunities in Europe and beyond.

Adopting a longitudinal approach, this book examines the dynamics of union and family formation in France and its effects on various aspects of life, such as employment, intergenerational transfers, etc. Drawing on data from a survey in which the same respondents were interviewed three times at three-year intervals, the book explores how demographic behaviours are influenced across the life course at individual level and assesses some of their consequences.

The contributors give a clear understanding of how family behaviours are constructed and redefined. They track changes in respondents’ lives in order to pinpoint the factors that prevent couples from realizing their fertility intentions, for example, or to identify certain determinants of union formation or dissolution. They also provide a more detailed picture of the changes that shape family behaviours, such as the impact of a birth on the working career or on intergenerational support, and much more.

Usinglongitudinal data from the French version of the Generations and Gender Survey (GGS), this book addresses family and childbearing behaviours dynamically, as processes that interact with each other and with the other components of each individual''s life course.