Italy’s Non-Negligible Cohabitational Unions

Italy has long been regarded as the country with negligible non-marital cohabitation par excellence, but lately the pattern has begun to change and entry into consensual unions has increased strongly in younger Italian generations. This article is devoted to a study of such features between 1980 and 2003 based on the data from the Italian variant of the Gender and Generations Survey, Round 1. We consider entry into marriage and entry into cohabitation as competing risks and show how the incidence of cohabitation consistently much lower but has increased by some 70% over the 20-odd years of our study, while the marriage rate has dropped by almost as much. We find great variation across major regions of the country. The rise in cohabitation is confined to Northern and Central Italy, while the risk of marriage formation has declined strongly all over the country. Unlike previous investigations, our data suggest that non-marital cohabitation may be taking over whatever minor role civil marriage has had in Italian union formation.     

Marriage risks,cohabitation and premarital births in Canada

The transition that has occurred in the Canadian family is one of the important changes of recent decades. Fewer women are marrying and many more are delaying marriage. This paper is an attempt to examine the trends in union formation among various cohorts and to identify some of the socio-demographic correlates of marital timing. The data for this study are taken from the Canadian Fertility Survey of 1984. The results indicate that there is no immediate crisis for the family in Canada, but that many are choosing cohabitation as a preferred mode of first union formation at early stages. Young women (below 25 years of age), residents of large metropolitan areas, those with a university education and those with low religious commitment are more likely than others to be delayers of marriage.L'un des changements sociaux importants de ces dernières décennies est la transition qui s'est produite dans la famille, au Canada. Moins de femmes se marient et elles diffèrent de plus en plus leur mariage. Cet article examine les tendances dans la constitution des unions pour les diverses cohortes et met en corrélation le calendrier du mariage avec certaines caractéristiques socio-démographiques. Les résultats montrent que l'on n'est pas pour le moment dans une période de crise pour la famille, mais que beaucoup de jeunes femmes choisissent la cohabitation comme un moyen préférentiel de première constitution des unions. Les jeunes femmes de moins de 25 ans, résidant dans de grandes métropoles, ayant une formation universitaire et ayant une faible pratique religieuse, diffèrent, plus que les autres, leur mariage.     

Second Unions Now More Stable than First? A Comparison of Separation Risks by Union Order in France

The frequency of union dissolutions increased sharply over the past 40 years in Western Europe and North America, resulting in a rapid growth in the number of persons living with a second partner. In studies of the 1980s, primarily conducted within the context of marriage, second partnerships were generally found to be less stable than first unions, but more recent studies provide more conflicting evidence. Taking the example of France, we study whether the relationship between first and second union stability indeed reversed between the 1970s and the 2000s, and how union and individual characteristics contributed to changes over time. The analysis presented here is based on the French Generations and Gender Survey (2005). The article first provides an overview of the differences in marriage, childbearing and breakup behaviours in first and second unions. Second, a piecewise linear model for repeated events is used to compare women’s dissolution risks in first and second unions. The results show that over time, the higher instability of second compared to first unions disappeared. Further, women in second unions adopted unmarried cohabitation as a living arrangement more often across the whole period and were more likely to have stepchildren, which was associated with less stable unions. Taking into account this diversity of family situations, i.e. controlling for family form and children, second unions were more stable than first unions, even during the past. At both union orders, marriage breakup risks tended to stabilise despite a continuing increase in the prevalence of separation, which suggests that cohabitation increasingly acts as a filter for marriage.     

Early Union Formation in Canada: Links with Education

This article examines the link between early union formation and education using a new Canadian longitudinal data set, the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS). Educational transitions and early union formation occur around the same time in young adulthood, yet the roles of student and conjugal partner are often thought to be incompatible. We examine the effect of two important educational indicators (exit from full-time school and level of achieved education) on the timing of the first conjugal union. In addition, we incorporate several more direct measures of educational commitment. Results from proportional hazard models reveal that exit from full-time school greatly increases the transition to first union, especially marriage. Similarly, obtaining a post-secondary degree/diploma also significantly increases the risk of forming a union, especially for women. More direct measures of educational commitment show that skipping classes in high school has a negative effect on the risk of marriage, but a positive effect on cohabiting unions. A greater aspiration for future education, meanwhile, has a negative impact on union formation in general.     

Modern family initiation in sweden: Experience of women born between 1936 and 1960

This report investigates trends in the initial phases of the family-building process for Swedish women in five-year cohorts born between 1936 and 1960, using life-table techniques. Non-marital cohabitation was much more widespread in our pre-World War II cohort than has been realized previously. Among never-married women, first-birth fertility was remarkably stable for those in and those not in a consensual union alike. Strong increases in non-marital fertility have resulted from progressively increasing exposure to the higher fertility of consensual unions instead of to the very low fertility of single women. Cohabitational first-birth fertility is not high compared with marital fertility.     

How Similar are Cohabiting and Married Parents? Second Conception Risks by Union Type in the United States and Across Europe

The increase in births within cohabitation in the United States and across Europe suggests that cohabitation and marriage have become more similar with respect to childbearing. However, little is known about additional childbearing after first birth. Using harmonized union and fertility histories from surveys in 15 countries, this study examines second conception risks leading to a live birth for women who have given birth within a union. Results show that women who continue to cohabit after birth have significantly lower second conception risks than married women in all countries except those in Eastern Europe, even when controlling for union duration, union dissolution, age at first birth, and education. Pooled models indicate that differences in the second conception risks by union type between Eastern and Western Europe are significant. Pooled models including an indicator for the diffusion of cohabitation show that when first births within cohabitation are rare, cohabiting women have significantly lower second conception risks than married women. As first births within cohabitation increase, differences in second conception risks for cohabiting and married women narrow. But as the percent increases further, the differentials increase again, suggesting that cohabitation and marriage are not becoming equivalent settings for additional childbearing. However, I also find that in all countries except Estonia, women who marry after first birth have second conception risks similar to couples married at first birth, indicating that the sequence of marriage and childbearing does not matter to fertility as much as the act of marrying itself.     

Are Mixed-Ethnic Unions More Likely to Dissolve Than Co-Ethnic Unions? New Evidence from Britain

The increasing proportion of ethnic minorities in Britain has been paralleled by an increase in the occurrence of mixed-ethnic marriages between one White partner and an ethnic minority partner. Such marriages are thought to be at higher risk of divorce, but empirical studies so far have been inconclusive. This paper uses the Office for National Statistics longitudinal study for England and Wales to investigate whether mixed-ethnic unions are more likely to end in divorce than co-ethnic unions. We followed married couples in 1991?C2001 and examined their risks of divorce. We found evidence that mixed-ethnic unions have a higher risk of dissolution than co-ethnic unions. However, after controlling for partners?? characteristics, most importantly the younger ages of people in mixed-ethnic unions, the risk of divorce for mixed-ethnic unions was no longer elevated, but lay close to the higher risk found for the two constituent co-ethnic unions.     

Intentions to Live Together Among Couples Living Apart: Differences by Age and Gender

One of the central questions about LAT (living apart together) is whether these partnerships are short-term arrangements due to temporary constraints, and should be viewed as part of courtship towards cohabitation and marriage, or whether they replace cohabitation and marriage as a long-term arrangement. The current study addresses this question and examines intentions to live together among people living apart by age and gender. This study uses Generations and Gender Study (GGS) data for eleven European countries. The findings reveal an interesting interaction of age and gender. More specifically, younger women have higher intentions to live together than younger men, but older women have lower intentions than older men. These gender differences remain significant also in the multivariate analyses. These findings suggest that older women in LAT may be undoing gender to a greater extent than younger women, who still intend to live in a more traditional (and probably gendered) arrangement of cohabitation and possibly marriage. Having resident children reduces intentions to live together among people younger than age 50, but the effect does not differ by gender. The effect of non-resident children on intentions to live together is statistically non-significant.     

Marriage and cohabitation in a changing society: Experience of Norwegian men and women born in 1945 and 1960

Retrospective survey data are used to estimate the effect of various factors on the transitions to first marriage or first cohabitation among single Norwegian men and women born in 1945 and 1960. A high educational level is not found to reduce marriage intensities for women, although educational enrollment appears to be less compatible with marriage for women than men. The effect of employment varies according to prevailing sex-role expectations. The data support the assumption that modern cohabitation developed from two socially opposite origins, the educated elite and the working class. A social value dimension is assumed to have a major effect upon the present-day choice between marriage and cohabitation.Nous utilisons ici les données d'une enquête rétrospective pour estimer l'effet de différents facteurs sur la première entrée en mariage ou en cohabitation de célibataires norvégiens nés en 1945 et 1960. Nous montrons que, chez les fammes, un niveau d'éducation élevé ne réduit pas l'intensité de la nuptialité, quoique le fait d'être étudiant apparaisse moins compatible avec le mariage pour les femmes que pour les hommes. Les données confirment l'hypothèse selon laquelle les formes modernes de cohabitation se sont développées à partir de deux origines sociales opposées: l'élite éduquée et la classe ouvrière. Une dimension liée à la norme sociale est supposée avoir un effet majeur sur les choix entre mariage et cohabitation qui ont lieu de nos jours.

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Revised version of a paper presented at the 10th Nordic Demographic Symposium in Lund, Sweden, 12–14 August 1992. The financial support from the Norwegian Ministry of Children and Family Affairs is gratefully acknowledged. The author is in debt to Jan M. Hoem at Stockholm University for generous education and supervision. Thanks are also due to Østein Kravdal and Inger Texmon at Statistics Norway for valuable assistance.     

Socioeconomic Resources and the Dissolution of Cohabitations and Marriages

A large body of research focuses on the (socio)economic antecedents of marriage dissolution. Less is known about the factors that affect the stability of cohabitations. The focus in this study, which is based on Finnish register data, is on whether the socioeconomic resources of the partners affect the stability of cohabitations and marriages in a similar way. According to the results, a lower level of education, unemployment (of the man in particular) and the male partner’s (or the couple’s) low income increased dissolution rates in unions of both types. The stabilizing effects of each partner’s high educational level as well as the male partner’s employment and high income were stronger in marriages. The union types also seemed to differ in that the separation-promoting effect of the female partner’s high (absolute or relative) income was stronger in marriages, but high-income women are few and the interactions between union type and the income of the female partner were statistically insignificant. The overall conclusion is that in the Finnish context, the socioeconomic antecedents of union dissolution are remarkably similar in cohabitations and marriages, but socioeconomic resources are somewhat more important for the stability of marriages. Only weak support was found for the idea that cohabitations are more compatible with income equality.     

婚姻同居义务之法律演进与我国法律之补正——以妇女权益的流变为视角

透过我国法律对同居义务规定的演进,我们找到了我国《婚姻法》至今未加以规定同居义务的部分缘由。世界许多国家的法律对同居义务加以确认的立法现状,促使我们对同居义务规定与否的利弊进行再思考。我们应该在婚姻法的条文中明确规定夫妻互负同居之义务、同居义务豁免之理由及违反同居义务规定的法律责任等。     

论分手协议的效力

由于我国法律对婚前同居现象、特别是同居关系终止后的法律后果没有明确规定,因此当事人同居后产生纠纷亦不能得到现行法律的妥善解决,于是许多人试图通过订立同居协议以保护个人权益,但该类协议本身是否具有法律效力尚存在较大争议,而该问题随着现今婚前同居行为的日渐兴盛而有予以明确的必要。     

Serial Cohabitation among Men in Britain: Does Work History Matter?

This article asks three research questions: Do serially cohabiting men form a selected group via their work histories? Are serial cohabitors less likely to marry but more likely to separate than single-instance cohabitors? If so, what part is played by features of their work histories in explaining these outcomes? The analyses are based on two British birth cohort studies relating to men born in 1958 (N?=?7,333) and 1970 (N?=?6,126). I find that serial cohabitors are less likely to marry but are more likely to separate. Although serial cohabitors do form a selected group via their work histories, the negative effect of serial cohabitation on marriage and the positive effect of serial cohabitation on separation remain significant and strong even after I control for cohabitors’ before-cohabitation and within-cohabitation work histories. It appears that the experience of serial cohabitation itself that affects the attitudes of men towards marriage.     

Partnership Choice and Childbearing in Norway and Spain

Cohabitation has, in a number of countries, become a genuine alternative to marriage. Where this occurs, will we see a convergence in fertility behavior between the two partnership options? We address this question by comparing two societies, Norway and Spain, that contrast sharply not only in the evolution of cohabitation, but also in overall birth rates and public support for families. Using the Generations and Gender Survey for Norway (2007/2008) and the most recent Fertility, Family and Values Survey for Spain (2006), we estimate a three-equation multi-process model for selection into a union and fertility in order to take into account unobserved heterogeneity. For Norway, we find a significant association between selection into either partnership type and fertility, whereas for Spain, a newcomer to cohabitation, we find a significant association between fertility and selection into marriage.     

Entry to Marriage and Cohabitation in Russia, 1985–2000: Trends,Correlates, and Implications for the Second Demographic Transition

Recent decades have witnessed declining marriage rates and increasing cohabitation in Russia. Are these trends short-term responses to the economic and political crises accompanying the collapse of the Soviet Union in late 1991 or do they represent a longer-term shift driven by ideational changes like those shaping the “second demographic transition” in many developed countries since the 1960s? Our analyses of individual-level rates of entry to first marriage and cohabitation using 3,510 marital histories spanning 1985–2000 from the Survey of Stratification and Migration Dynamics in Russia show that the precise timing of these trends, the patterns of association between marriage and cohabitation rates and individual and contextual covariates, and the relationship between cohabitation and marriage entry mostly confirm the “transition” perspective. However, although Russia’s retreat from marriage, an especially radical departure from historically predominant patterns, involves ideational changes, the mechanisms driving these changes in Russia differ from those identified in accounts of the second demographic transition in other countries.     

Understanding Diversity in the Meaning of Cohabitation Across Europe

This study investigates the diversity in the meanings attached to cohabitation across Europe. Utilizing a sample of 9,113 cohabiters between ages 18 and 79 from 10 European countries that participated in the Generations and Gender Surveys, we develop a typology of different meanings of cohabitation and study their prevalence across and within countries. Based on answers to questions about marriage intentions, marriage attitudes and feelings of economic deprivation, six types of cohabiters are distinguished. Cohabiters in some of these types mainly view cohabitation as a stage in the marriage process (i.e. a prelude to marriage, a trial marriage, cohabitation for economic reasons, intend to marry, despite an unfavourable attitude towards the institution of marriage), whereas other cohabiters mainly view it as an alternative to marriage (i.e. refusal of marriage, marriage is irrelevant). Results suggest that cohabiters constitute a heterogeneous group. For many, marriage is important and cohabitation serves as a period preceding marriage. Cohabitation as an alternative to marriage is more prevalent in Western and Northern Europe, where cohabitation rates are high. The group of cohabiters who intend to marry despite an unfavourable attitude towards the institution of marriage is particularly large in Central and Eastern European countries, where cohabitation is less widespread.     

论我国女性在非婚同居中的损害之法律救济

随着非婚同居行为的日益增多,随之而来的法律问题也呈现出多样化。虽法学界已意识到对非婚同居行为进行立法规范已成为刻不容缓的任务,但对同居中女性健康权问题依然没有引起足够重视。然而我国现有的婚姻法及相关法律中并未对非婚同居行为进行规范,女性在非婚同居中受到的人身损害也就难以得到相应的法律救济。本文主要通过分析女性在非婚同居中所受损害的类型以及我国现行法律对女性权益保护的不足,并借鉴国外相关的立法实践,结合我国社会的特点,提出对我国相关立法的完善。     

夫妻间的同居义务

夫妻间的同居义务是夫妻其他权利与义务的基础。国外有相关的立法规定。我国现行婚姻法对此问题的规定还是半遮半露。笔者建议对夫妻间的同居义务作出积极的立法规定 ,并对不履行同居义务的抗辩事由以及无故不履行同居义务的相应救济措施提出了自己的一些看法。