Sibling Experiences during Childhood and Adolescence among the 1988 and 2000 Finnish Birth Cohorts

Liina Junna , University of Helsinki
Hanna Remes, University of Helsinki
Michael Murphy, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
Pekka Martikainen, University of Helsinki

Due to the increased share of reconstituted families in many Western countries, more children are expected to have half- and stepsiblings. Yet little is known about the actual prevalence of full, half- and stepsiblings and the timing and duration of sibling experiences across childhood and adolescence. Moreover, the magnitude of changes in sibling experiences over time and within different socioeconomic groups is unknown. This study is based on administrative register data of the 1988 (n=64,597) and 2000 (n=56,413) Finnish birth cohorts from birth to age 16. We identify the biological parents and their cohabiting or married partners, and any full, half- and stepsiblings of the index child at any given year. We use annual categorical states in different sibling compositions to create relative frequency sequence plots to describe the sibling experiences across childhood and adolescence. We also calculate the number of changes in siblingships and the time spent in different sibling compositions by birth cohort and maternal education. The preliminary results indicate increasing complexity in sibling experiences. Over 80% of both birth cohorts had a full sibling. However, among the 1988 cohort, 29.4% of the children had any half- and/or stepsiblings by age 16, while among the 2000 cohort, this share was 35.0%. The preliminary results also show educational differences in the sibling experiences with more complex experiences among children born to mothers with lower educational attainment.

See extended abstract

 Presented in Session P3. Migration, Economics, Policies, History