Entering first union: the choice between cohabitation and marriage among women in Italy and Spain

Abstract

While in Spain and Italy cohabitation has not acquired the same role that it has had in Northern Europe, in both of these Mediterranean countries cohabitation is no longer a marginal phenomenon. Moreover, the nature of cohabiting couples is diverse. According to the most recent FFS data, first cohabitations constitute a temporary arrangement that usually ends in the formalization of the union (marriage), and within 5 years 28.9 % of first cohabitations in Spain and 51.7 % in Italy were transformed into marriages. Within a Western context of changes in union formation patterns, the study of the choice between marriage and cohabitation as first union is of great significance. Is it possible to identify a shared pattern of union formation in Mediterranean countries like Italy and Spain? The purpose of this paper is to examine the choice between cohabitation and marriage as first union (timing, incidence and determinants) using a comparative life course approach. For the analysis of the timing and prevalence, cumulative incidence curves are calculated by birth cohorts and regions; while two semiparametric competing-risks models are estimated for the determinants of first partnership formation (one for each country), considering birth cohort, parental separation, educational attainment, employment status, age at leaving the parental home and birth of a child (the last three time-varying) as independent variables

In the Case of Union Dissolution of Couples with Children. Who Decides to Avoid the Courts and Why?

“…Now, to proceed to the discussion of the main results of the article, our findings on cohabitation indicate rejection of the legal procedure which persists even when decisions involving children must be taken. As for SES, our results mirror the findings of García-Pereiro et al (2014) regarding union formation. Their results indicate that the higher the SES the more likely women are to prefer a cohabiting union to marriage, while women in the low SES group are more likely to get married.…”

First union formation in urban Burkina Faso: Competing relationship transitions to marriage or cohabitation

“…First, the research confirms the necessity of "bringing back the men" into the picture and taking a truly two-sided analysis of marriage and cohabitation (Kalmijn 2011;Pereiro, Pace, and Didonna 2014). Qualitative data on representations and motivations underlying the choice of non-marital cohabitation, and how they differ by gender, would be particularly valuable at this stage.…”

“…The existing evidence from Western countries also suggests that unmarried conception and the birth of a child is an important factor in the analysis of the choice between marriage and cohabitation. Previous research shows that pregnancy and childbearing precipitate both marriage and cohabitation and that the effect is more pronounced in the transition to marriage, especially in countries or among social groups where the pressure to give birth within marriage is strong (Brien, Lillard, and Waite 1999;Gabrielli and Hoem 2010;Hoem and Kostova 2008;Agadjanian and Dommaraju 2011;Pereiro, Pace, and Didonna 2014). In Burkina Faso, although conception and birth outside formal unions are on the rise in urban areas, childbearing remains strongly associated with marriage plans (Calvès and Gnoumou Thiombiano 2014).…”

“…In contrast to industrialized countries (Manting 1996;Oppenheimer 2003;Manning, Longmore, and Giordano 2007;Thomson and Bernhard 2010;Agadjanian and Dommaraju 2011;Kalmijn 2011;Pereiro, Pace, and Didonna 2014), the choice between marriage and cohabitation among youth in sub-Saharan Africa and the factors affecting this choice have attracted little attention. Overall, however, two main general hypotheses emerge implicitly from the existing literature.…”

How soon do single mothers have another child? A competing risk analysis of second premarital childbearing in sub-Saharan African countries

“…An elegant explanation of the Fine and Gray model has been published in another study [35]. While its application has mostly been in medical and epidemiological research, its application in studying population processes such as fertility, mortality, and family formation has also been increasing [36][37][38][39][40].…”