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Cohabitation. FuzzyHeterogeneous, includes:Post-marriage (pre- and post-divorce)Pre-marriagePost widowhoodEvolving
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1. Currently cohabiting: relationship attitudes and intentions in the BHPS. Ernestina Coast
2. Cohabitation Fuzzy
Heterogeneous, includes:
Post-marriage (pre- and post-divorce)
Pre-marriage
Post widowhood
Evolving
“a moving target”
1980s “alternative lifestyle”
4. Good large-scale descriptive data on incidence and trends
Representative attitudinal surveys
Empirical gap: cohabitees
US research
emerging qualitative research
survey data relationship intentions and attitudes
longitudinal data – collected while subjective state exists
systematic empirical investigation of social change
5. Normative attitudes Changing social norms around marriage
Deinstitutionalisation of marriage
(Cherlin, 1994)
Démariage
(Thery, 1994),
Disestablishment of marriage
(Coontz, 2004, quoting Cott).
6. BHPS normative attitudes “Living together outside of marriage is always wrong”
1992, 1994, 1996
“It is alright for people to live together even if they have no interest in considering marriage”
1998, 2000, 2002, 2004
8. Percentage distribution of youths aged 11-15 years response to the question statement “Living together outside of marriage is always wrong”, BHPS 1994-2005
10. Social acceptance of cohabitation well-established
Moved from deviant to normative behaviour
Acceptance likely to increase
Cohort replacement
Socialisation
Social diffusion
11. British Household Panel Survey (BHPS)
Annual since 1991
Approx. 5,000 households
Full interview with new partners
14. Questions “We are interested in why you and your partner have chosen to live together rather than being married. Do you think there are any (dis)advantages in living as a couple, rather than being married?”
If “Yes”
“What do you think are the (dis)advantages of living as a couple?”
15. Question: Future intentions “Obviously you cannot say for certain what will happen, but could you please look at this card and read out the number of the statement which you feel applies most closely to your current relationship?
1 Planning to marry
2 Probably get married at some point
3 Probably just keep living together without marrying
4 Have not really thought about the future
5 Other (specify)
6 Don’t know
16. Supplementary Question “Even though you have no plans to marry at the moment, can you please look at this card and tell me how likely it is that you will ever get married to anyone in the future?”
1 Very likely
2 Likely
3 Unlikely
4 Very unlikely
5 Don’t know
17. Interrogating the questions Grounded in reality
Take account of circumstances rather than an expression of abstract desire
Supplementary question on marriage expectation moves from current relationship to any future hypothetical relationship
Phrased relative to marriage
18. Percentage distribution of reported advantages of cohabitation relative to marriage, currently cohabiting respondents, 1998 and 2003.
19. Percentage distribution of reported disadvantages of cohabitation relative to marriage, currently cohabiting respondents, 1998 and 2003.
20. Percentage distribution of responses to the statement “How likely it is that you will ever get married to anyone in the future?”, by currently cohabiting, never married respondents with no plans to marry their current partner, by sex, 1998 and 2003.
21. Percentage distribution of future relationship expectations, by duration of current cohabiting relationship (n=1,015 respondents), 2003
22. % distribution of union expectations, by prior live-in relationship, 1998 and 2003
23. Do individuals achieve their relationship expectations?
24. Couple concordance / discordance Use only couples with full responses to questions
Potential bias for homogeneity of response
Only first-ever live-in relationships
Interview effect?
1998 58% of individual interviews record 3rd party
89% coded as no influence exerted by the third party
25. Do couples report conflicting relationship attitudes and expectations?
26. % distribution couple expectations, 1998 and 2003, first unions only
28. Discussion Analyses at the relationship level
Living apart together (LAT)
Assumption of rational choice
Vague or underspecified goals
Qualitative insights
Cohabitation versus marriage or LAT or singlehood?