"In an empirical analysis the article investigates the intergenerational transmission of divorce risk with multivariate event-history techniques using data on the 10,000 respondents of the German Family Survey. In both younger and older cohorts the transmission effect is confirmed. Surprisingly, however, there are huge sex differences in the impact of parents' divorces on their children. Sons of divorced parents have a much higher risk of divorce than girls.... The transmission effect cannot be explained by the decreased standard of living typically observed in all types of single-parent families. The data suggest, however, that differences in intervening variables may partially explain the transmission effect." (SUMMARY IN ENG)

"The development of internal migration in the Federal Republic of Germany during the last few decades shows that commuting is becoming more and more a substitute for moves over long distances.... This paper tries to explain this 'mobility transition' by means of a model of individual choice between commuting and moving. The model is also able to account for changes in structural components. The decision-model is empirically tested by using methods of event history analysis with the data of the Socio-Economic Panel." (SUMMARY IN ENG)

"This paper investigates how education influences marriage behavior in three countries: the United States, West Germany, and former East Germany. Following family economics we postulate that for women a longer education decreases marriage rates both during education (institutional effect) and after the degree has been obtained (human capital effect). For men family economics predicts the delaying institutional effect, too, but the human capital effect is expected to increase marriage rates. Further considerations lead to the additional hypothesis that for younger birth cohorts these sex differences should attenuate.... For the United States and West Germany the observed marriage patterns confirm our hypotheses for the most part. For East Germany, however, we observe different marriage patterns. This was expected because the institutional context in this former socialist country was a very different one." (SUMMARY IN ENG)

"Though changes in values have been analysed [for] two decades, their impact on actual behaviour has almost been neglected. This especially is the case with values concerning marriage and the family which [have been] responsible for behavioural changes. Here, the impact of emerging postmaterialistic values on fertility are analysed, deriving from the assumption that the effect of children on the general life-style is large enough to let fertility behaviour be influenced by general value orientations. The main result is that the emergence of postmaterialism has led to postponement of parenthood whereas the number of children is left untouched." (SUMMARY IN ENG)

"In this article, factors affecting the probability of the birth of a second child are investigated. In particular, changes in the structure of the individual decision process of family formation in the FRG [Federal Republic of Germany] during the last decades are discussed. We contest the thesis of a trend towards the predominance of the one-child family and instead argue that with increased individual autonomy in the decision of family formation and fertility behavior couples either decide against having children or, more frequently, choose to have more than one child. While the former phenomenon is already well known, in this article the latter is shown to be empirically valid as well. There are hints that this pattern of 'polarization' in the process of family formation will increasingly be established in the future." (SUMMARY IN ENG)

"This study tests the feasibility of describing household and family structure by means of survey data. Rather than presenting new results, it focuses on alternative ways of obtaining information on the social structure. A typology of households and families is formulated and empirically reconstructed using data from the German General Social Survey (ALLBUS) of 1982; the results are compared with official data from the 1981 'microcensus'. There is a remarkable correspondence between the ALLBUS data and those from the 'microcensus'. This result--along with a range of more general advantages--demonstrates the potential of survey data for social structural analysis, especially for the analysis of household and family structure." (summary in ENG)