A reflection on the changing dynamics of union formation and dissolution

Bennett, Neil G.

doi:10.4054/demres.2017.36.12

Cited by 20 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Meanwhile, similar patterns of elevated divorce or union dissolution risks of couples of two women compared with those of two men have been reported in most other contexts where data on legally recognized same-sex unions are available, including Norway (Wiik et al 2014); Denmark (Andersson and Noack 2010); Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain (Chamie and Mirkin 2011); England and Wales (Ross et al 2011); and the United States (e.g., Ketcham and Bennett 2016;Rosenfeld 2014). For further cross-country surveys, see Bennett (2017) and Marteau (2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the wake of recent social and legal change, the field of research on same-sex couple relationships has expanded exponentially (Baumle 2018; Moore and Stambolis-Ruhstorfer 2013). The U.S.-based family-demographic literature covers a wide range of topics stretching from the outcomes of partners in same-sex unions (e.g., Bennett 2017;Manning et al 2016;Rosenfeld 2014) to those of children who grow up in same-sex-headed households (e.g., Biblarz and Stacey 2010;Calzo et al 2017).…”

Section: Previous Research On Same-sex Union Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Two Decades of Same-Sex Marriage in Sweden: A Demographic Account of Developments in Marriage, Childbearing, and Divorce

Kolk

Andersson

2020

Demography

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In this study, we provide demographic insight into the still relatively new family form of same-sex marriage. We focus on period trends in same-sex marriage formation and divorce during 1995-2012 in Sweden and the role of childbearing in same-sex unions. The period begins with the introduction of registered partnership for same-sex couples and also covers the introduction of formal same-sex marriage in 2009. We use register data for the complete population of Sweden to contrast patterns in male and female same-sex marriage formation and divorce. We show that female same-sex union formation increased rapidly over the period, while trends for male same-sex unions increased less. The introduction of same-sex marriage legislation in 2009 appears to have had little effect on the pace of formation of same-sex unions. In contrast, legal changes supporting parental rights in same-sex unions may have fueled the formation of female same-sex marriages as well as parenthood in such unions. Further, we show that divorce risks in the marital unions of two women are much higher than in other types of marriages. We find some convergence of divorce risks across union types at the end of our study period: male samesex unions have the same divorce risk levels as opposite-sex marriages, and the elevated risks of divorce in female same-sex unions appear to have stabilized at somewhat lower levels than those observed in the late 1990s.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Previous Research On Same-sex Union Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Two Decades of Same-Sex Marriage in Sweden: A Demographic Account of Developments in Marriage, Childbearing, and Divorce

Kolk

Andersson

2020

Demography

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“…Martin and Bumpass (1989) estimated for the US that five percent of each marriage cohort separate without divorcing. Recently, Bennett (2017) argued that the "extent to which a marital separation is followed by divorce varies considerably among subgroups." Two years after a separation, 32% of whites have yet to divorce.…”

Section: The Hypothesis Of the Increasing Legitimization Of Separationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While intensive and ongoing research on the determinants of marital instability has resulted in the identification of a large number of risk factors, the question of why there has been a sharp and nearly continuous upward trend in divorce rates in many highly developed countries remains unanswered (see Härkönen 2014 for a review of this research). In many countries, this upward trend continued for more than one hundred years, beginning in the late nineteenth century and ending in the late twentieth century or early twenty-first century (Bennett 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On Increasing Divorce Risks

Wagner

2020

European Studies of Population

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While intensive and ongoing research on the determinants of marital stability has resulted in the identification of a large number of risk factors, the question of why there has been a nearly continuous upward trend in divorce rates in many developed countries has yet to be answered. This upward trend continued over a period of more than one hundred years, and ended-at least in some countries-in the late twentieth century or early twenty-first century. The aim of this paper is to review the theoretical concepts and the empirical findings of studies that have investigated historical trends in divorce rates. Some authors have argued that the quality of marriages has declined, while others have attributed this trend to a weakening of the barriers to divorce, or to increased opportunities to meet alternative partners. Theories of social change generally emphasize the role of either modernization or normative change in marital dissolution patterns. Given the evidence that the cohort and the period effects on the divorce rate cannot be explained by socioeconomic variables, it seems likely that increasing divorce rates are better explained by cultural than by socioeconomic changes.

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“…Same-sex marital unions may be less prone to minority stress due to their legal acceptance and equivalence to male-female marital unions, removing an institutional source of stress. While the legal availability and acceptance of same-sex marital unions does not necessarily include acceptance of same-sex relationships by family, Bennett (2017) notes that a couple's marital status seems to matter more than the gender composition of the couple for parental approval, according to data from Rosenfeld (2014). However, parental approval of same-sex unions, whether marital or not, is lower than that for malefemale unions (Rosenfeld 2014) and may still constitute a source of stress for same-sex couples.…”

Section: Social Exchange Theory and The Minority Stress Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparative Couple Stability: Same-sex and Male-female Unions in the United States

Ketcham

Bennett²

2019

Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World

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Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). Original ArticleWith the advent of Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015, same-sex marriages are legal across the United States, and in some states, same-sex marriages and other governmentally recognized unions were legal several years prior. Levels and patterns of the stability of this relatively new type of union are not well understood. While some studies have shown that samesex unions are at higher risk of dissolution compared to malefemale unions, others have found similar dissolution rates for same-sex and male-female unions. A common finding across the literature, however, is that female-female unions in particular are less stable than their male-male or male-female counterparts. It is unclear, however, whether this gendered difference in union stability is found for both cohabiting and formalized unions (i.e., marriage, domestic partnership, or civil union). Additionally, the mechanisms underlying the relative instability of female-female unions remain unexplained.This article seeks to compare the stability of male-male, female-female, and male-female couples in both cohabitational and formalized unions, exploring the interaction effects between the gender composition and the formal union status of couples. While the literature on this topic has divergent findings, each study has approached this issue in a slightly different way, some investigating only cohabitational unions or only formal unions and some considering same-sex couples as a single group rather than separating male-male and female-female unions, for example. Using recent longitudinal data from coupled individuals, we separate male-male, female-female, and male-female couples as well as cohabitational and formalized unions to provide an understanding of similarities and differences in stability between couple types. We find that all cohabitational unions experience the same risk of union dissolution and that all formalized unions have a lower risk of dissolution compared to their cohabitational peers. However, we find that formalized female-female unions have higher risk of union dissolution compared to formalized male-male and male-female unions. This article also seeks to shed light on mechanisms that drive this difference in stability. AbstractFindings on comparative couple stability between same-sex and male-female unions vary, with some studies finding similar dissolution rates among same-sex and male-female unions and others finding higher rates of dissolution among same-sex unions. The authors extend previous research by examining the association between gender composition of couples and dissolution patte...

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A reflection on the changing dynamics of union formation and dissolution

Cited by 20 publications

References 15 publications

Two Decades of Same-Sex Marriage in Sweden: A Demographic Account of Developments in Marriage, Childbearing, and Divorce

Two Decades of Same-Sex Marriage in Sweden: A Demographic Account of Developments in Marriage, Childbearing, and Divorce

On Increasing Divorce Risks

Comparative Couple Stability: Same-sex and Male-female Unions in the United States

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