First Birth in Russia: Everyone does It - Young

Authors

• Katja Kesseli

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23979/fypr.45034

Keywords:

?rst child, fertility, Russia, event history analysis

Abstract

Until the early 1990s, the common characteristics of Russian fertility were early and almost universal marriage and childbearing. In this article I examine the impact of cohort on first birth. I follow Russian women (based on self-reported ethnicity) born between 1930 and 1986 by applying event history techniques to the Russian Generation and Gender Survey (GSS). The results show that first birth took place earlier in womens lives cohorts born from the 1930s to the 1960s cohort. Among younger women, the trend is opposite, but it is too early to speak of a strong postponement effect. Differences in first-birth risk between cohorts are due to differences in marriage and cohabitation patterns.