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This article explores the relationships between partnership trajectories and having an only child. Few studies have focused on one-child families, even though in many countries having just one child is the main factor driving sub-replacement fertility levels. Little is known especially about how non-progression to a second child relates to partnership trajectories. This article contributes to filling these gaps by using a mixed-methods life-course research. We combine sequence and regression analyses of survey data with a biographical analysis of problem-centred interviews with parents of an only child. Based on the Czech Household panel survey, we estimate the probability of having an only child in relation to parents’ different partnership trajectories after the birth of the first child. Analysing the problem-centred interviews, we explore parents’ understanding of the processes that lead them not to progress to a second child. Our findings indicate that having an only child is associated with partnership dissolution after the first child’s birth and with later entry into parenthood. High levels of education are negatively associated with the probability of having an only child among fathers, but positively among mothers. Partnership dissatisfaction and work-life balance issues contribute to non-progression to a second child.

Disentangling the link between having one child and partnership trajectories: a mixed-methods life-course research