Make up or break up? Partnership transitions among young adults in England and Wales

Union formation and fertility amongst immigrants from Pakistan and their descendants in the United Kingdom: A multichannel sequence analysis

“…Further, it is argued that with rising empowerment in both the education and economy of women, voluntary childlessness becomes increasingly acceptable by society (Lesthaeghe 2014). Evidence from the United Kingdom supports this behavioural shift: More children are born outside of marriages to both cohabiting parents and to lone mothers than ever before (Perelli-Harris et al 2010;Thomson 2014), and cohabitation rather than direct marriages has become common (Beaujouan and Ní Bhrolcháin 2011;Pelikh, Mikolai, and Kulu 2022). Whilst most cohabitations do convert to marriages eventually, cohabitating unions are more prone to dissolution compared to marriages (Beaujouan and Ní Bhrolcháin 2011;Wilson and Stuchbury 2010).…”

“…The extent of these destandardised behaviours can be related to early life experience and intergenerational transmissions of preferences (Liefbroer and Elzinga 2012). But prevalence of these patterns varies across gender (Pelikh, Mikolai, and Kulu 2022), education (Mikolai, Berrington, and Perelli-Harris 2018), and immigrant background and over time.…”

Partnership Trajectories Preceding Medically Assisted Reproduction

“…For example, for some women a first union might be associated with a more casual relationship, in which the partners do not have a long-term commitment or immediate plans to have children (Rindfuss and VandenHeuvel 1990;Heuveline and Timberlake 2004;Sassler 2004). Cohabiting couples in this type of union tend to be younger, and their relationships tend to be shorter (Manning and Smock 2002;Guzzo 2014;Lamidi et al 2019;Pelikh, Mikolai et al 2022). Some women seeking MAR in a higher-order partnership might have wanted children in their first union but separated from their partner before they tried to conceive (e.g.…”

Like brother, like sister? Disentangling the intertwined associations between siblings’ life course trajectories

“…Research has indicated that cohabiting and married individuals differ in terms of life stage, maturity level, and autonomy needs. Compared to the married, cohabitors are more tentative about their relationship and have more non-traditional and permissive traits, lower level of relationship stability, and higher desire for independence and freedom (Hiekel et al, 2014;Kreidl & Žilinčíková, 2021;Pelikh et al, 2022;Perelli-Harris et al, 2014;Van Houdt & Poortman, 2018). Second, cohabiting couples have more egalitarian values, gender roles, and division of labor compared to married couples (Clarkberg et al, 1995;Domínguez-Folgueras, 2013;Lesthaeghe, 2010).…”