ABSTRACT
Over the past three to four decades, as entrance to marriage and childbearing are postponed, many countries have witnessed changes in the occurrence and timing of family life transitions in the lives of young adults (Liefbroer, 2009). This phenomenon, which from its initial stages was linked to the second demographic transition (van de Kaa, 1987; Lesthaeghe, 1995), contributes to lengthening the early life-course transition into adulthood, and results in increased flexibility in marital relationships and the de-institutionalization of the family (Beaujot, 2004). Despite attention from demographers doing large-scale analysis on fertility behaviour, we still lack insight from the micro-level perspective into the question of why young adults continuously postpone their transition to parenthood, with apparent reluctance to form a family.
