Couples living together before marriage has become increasingly common over the past few decades. This raises the question of whether marriages preceded by cohabitation are more or less stable and enduring as marriages in which the couple have not previously lived together. Some argue that cohabitation lessens people’s commitment to partnership and thus increases their risk of divorce, while others believe that a cohabitation phase before marriage (as a trial marriage) would strengthen marital stability. In the United States, data suggest that the effect of cohabitation on marriage is at best neutral; however, in European countries, the effect of cohabitation on marital stability varies markedly, according to a study covering the last decade of the twentieth century (Liefbroer and Dourleijn, 2006). Figure 1 indicates just how much union stability varies across countries for both those who have cohabited prior to marriage and those who have not. The GGS enables us to examine whether this pattern has changed over time or differs across groups within society.
Mean duration in years of heterosexual 21-79 year old individuals first union which was a cohabiting relationship followed by marriage or a marriage not preceded by cohabitation
Couples living together before marriage has become increasingly common over the past few decades. This raises the question of whether marriages preceded by cohabitation are more or less stable and enduring as marriages in which the couple have not previously lived together. Some argue that cohabitation lessens people’s commitment to partnership and thus increases their risk of divorce, while others believe that a cohabitation phase before marriage (as a trial marriage) would strengthen marital stability. In the United States, data suggest that the effect of cohabitation on marriage is at best neutral; however, in European countries, the effect of cohabitation on marital stability varies markedly, according to a study covering the last decade of the twentieth century (Liefbroer and Dourleijn, 2006). Figure 1 indicates just how much union stability varies across countries for both those who have cohabited prior to marriage and those who have not. The GGS enables us to examine whether this pattern has changed over time or differs across groups within society.
Mean duration in years of heterosexual 21-79 year old individuals first union which was a cohabiting relationship followed by marriage or a marriage not preceded by cohabitation
The GGP’s longitudinal design allows researchers to examine how relationships change over time and in response to people’s changing lives. For example, we can examine how the birth of a first child affects the distribution of household work (excluding childcare) within a couple. From the graph below we can see that the majority of couples are to the left of the graph, showing that women do more of the housework even before the arrival of children. At wave 2 these couples, who have all had a child, are primarily still below the gender equality line. The orange line in the graph represents the point at which the distribution of household tasks is the same before and after the arrival of child. Interestingly, there are a roughly equal number of couples on either side of the line. This means that for some couples the distribution of household tasks becomes more gender unequal where in others, it becomes more gender equal. The GGS allows us to probe further and examine what types of couples are in the first group and what type of couples are in the latter.
Distribution of Household Tasks before and after the birth of a couples first child
This month sees the release of the Wave 1 data for Sweden. The GGP now has publicly available data for 19 countries, allowing researchers to examine how lifecourses unfold in a wide variety of contexts. We know that families and lifecourses play out differently across countries but the GGP allows us to examine this in detail and its unprecendented breadth enables scientists to examine the role of contextual factors such as culture, policy and historical context. Figure 1 illustrates just how common coresiding with a parent is for young adults and when they start to move out in all 19 countries of the GGP. Such simple indicators raise questions as to why continued coresidence is common in places as diverse as Italy, Georgia and Japan, yet so uncommon in Scandinavia, Australia and France. The detailed micro level data of the GGP enables us to examine these cross national differences at the individual level.
Percentage of 20-35 year olds living with at least one parent
Source: Generations and Gender Survey Wave 1
The GGP has recently intergrated the Harmonized Histories Dataset within the GGP Data Collection and it is now available to all users The Harmonized Histories are a simplified dataset that covers partnership and fertility histories as well as some primary indicators. The dataset also includes data from the United States through the National Survey for Family Growth and we hope to add data from other countries in the near future. The dataset has been specifically adapted for use in event-history analysis and is therefore ideal for analysing the retrospective history elements of the GGP. It is aslo ideal for teaching event-history analysis as it is a smaller and simpler dataset than the full GGP dataset. The dataset was developed by the Non-Marital Childbearing Network and colleagues at Max-Planck and the GGP will continue to work with them to further develop this useful addition to the GGP data collection.
Age of First Cohabiting Union and First Birth
Source: Perelli-Harris, Brienna, Michaela Kreyenfeld, and Karolin Kubisch. Harmonized histories: manual for the preparation of comparative fertility and union histories. No. WP-2010-011. Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, 2010.
Living apart together (LAT) relationships are when a couple are in a relationship but choose not to live together. They are an interesting topic of study because data on these relationships is hard to come by as they do not appear in residency or marital registries. Surveys like the Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) are therefore vital in studying how prevelant these types of relationships are, what type of people generally have them and whether they are similar to marriage and cohabitation. Indeed, data from the GGS has been used by several international research projects which have examined precisely these questions. The findings suggest that such relationships are in fact a sizeable minority and often allow couples to meet short term work and educational requirements. They are therefore most common amongst the highly educated and those who are still in education. LAT relationships at older ages are most common amongst those who have experienced divorce in a previous relationship and those wanting to maintain independence.
Percentage of Adults living in LAT relationships by Country
Source: The graphic contains data from Wave 1 of the Generations and Gender Survey and the following publication: Liefbroer, Aart C., Anne-Rigt Poortman, and Judith Seltzer. “Why do intimate partners live apart? Evidence on LAT relationships across Europe.” Demographic Research 32.8 (2015): 251-286.
