Religion and union formation in Italy: Catholic precepts, social pressure, and tradition

"Let’s talk about love": An analysis of the religious and economic factors determining the choice of marital property regime in Italy

“…In our opinion the most plausible explanation is that those who opt for a religious marriage do so only to respect tradition. This interpretation is consistent with the findings of Vignoli and Salvini (2014), who, having analyzed data obtained from focus groups among young newlyweds, conclude: "The widely prevailing pressure of parents and peers and the hedonistic aspects of the traditional Church wedding seem to be more important in partnership formation than Catholic prescripts" (2014: 1099). Furthermore, it may be surmised that those couples who opt for a church wedding because of social pressure may in similar fashion be conditioned to try to 'save' a marriage that is in any case doomed to fail.…”

“…Therefore, one should expect that couples who opt for a religious marriage will be more likely to opt for the pooled system. Yet this is confirmed only if the choice of religious rites reflects a genuine adherence to religious precepts, rather than only a tendency, perhaps due to social pressure, to respect the tradition of marrying in a church (Vignoli and Salvini 2014).…”

Unequal Family Lives

“…Very low levels of nonmarital fertility are primarily concentrated in southern Europe, for example, in Greece, Albania, and southern Italy. Studies have indicated that Italy has had a "delayed diffusion" of cohabitation, potentially because parents have opposed their children living together without being married (DiGiulio and Rosina 2007;Vignoli and Salvini 2014). The vast majority of births also continue to occur within marriage in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia, reflecting traditional religious and cultural practices (Klü sener 2015).…”

Exploring social norms around cohabitation: The life course, individualization, and culture

“…For example, the primary subject of the Italian chapter was the Catholic religion, which infuses and defines familial interactions, as has been noted in many studies on fertility and cohabitation (De Rose, Racioppi, Zanatta 2008;De Rose and Vignoli 2011). Using focus group methods, Vignoli and Salvini (2014) delve into how religion influences decisions about cohabitation and marriage. The authors identified three main mechanisms through which religion can operate: Catholic precepts, social pressure, and tradition.…”

“…This Special Collection presents the results of this project in medium-sized cities in eight European countries: Vienna, Austria (Berghammer, Fliegenschnee, and Schmidt 2014); Florence, Italy (Vignoli and Salvini 2014); Rotterdam, the Netherlands (Hiekel and Keizer 2015); Oslo, Norway (Lappegard and Noack 2015); Warsaw, Poland (Mynarska, Baranowska-Rataj, and Matysiak 2014); Moscow, Russia (Isupova 2015); Southampton, the United Kingdom (Berrington, Perelli-Harris, and Trevena 2015); and Rostock, Germany (Klärner 2015). (For brevity, we refer throughout this introduction to the countries rather than the cities or authors).…”