Publication type
Journal Article
Authors
Publication date
June 1, 2026
Summary:
The sense of belonging to the current neighbourhood may play a role in the transition to parenthood by indicating a feeling of being ‘at home’ and having access to social resources. However, previous research has indicated that individuals often move house in anticipation of parenthood, likely altering their connection to the neighbourhood in the process. With data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (2009–23) and using logit regression, we examine the likelihood of a first birth. The results reveal that individuals with a higher sense of belonging to their neighbourhood are more likely to have a first child: especially recent movers compared with long-term residents. Furthermore, while long-distance movers generally show a lower probability of becoming parents, those with a high sense of belonging are as likely as short-distance movers to become parents. These findings suggest that socio-spatial factors play a role in the transition to parenthood.
Published in
Population Studies
Volume and page numbers
Volume: 80 , p.63 -81
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/00324728.2025.2478929
ISSN
324728
Subjects
Notes
© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
Open Access
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
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