Currently cohabiting: relationship attitudes and intentions in the BHPS'

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Currently cohabiting relationship attitudes and
intentions in the BHPS.

• Ernestina Coast

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Cohabitation

• Fuzzy
• Heterogeneous, includes
• Post-marriage (pre- and post-divorce)
• Pre-marriage
• Post widowhood
• Evolving
• a moving target
• 1980s alternative lifestyle

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Relationship pathways, all women, BHPS (2005)
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• 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

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Normative attitudes

• Changing social norms around marriage
• Deinstitutionalisation of marriage
• (Cherlin, 1994)
• Démariage
• (Thery, 1994),
• Disestablishment of marriage
• (Coontz, 2004, quoting Cott).

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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

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(No Transcript)
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Percentage distribution of youths aged 11-15
years response to the question statement Living
together outside of marriage is always wrong,
BHPS 1994-2005
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Percentage distribution, by age group, of
respondents who disagree, or strongly disagree,
with statements about cohabitation and marriage,
BSA, 1994-2002.
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• Social acceptance of cohabitation
  well-established
• Moved from deviant to normative behaviour
• Acceptance likely to increase
• Cohort replacement
• Socialisation
• Social diffusion

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British Household Panel Survey (BHPS)

• Annual since 1991
• Approx. 5,000 households
• Full interview with new partners

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1991 Wave 1
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1991 Wave 1
1992 Wave 2 Full marriage cohabitation history
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1992 Wave 2 Full marriage cohabitation history
1991 Wave 1
Annual status updates
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1992 Wave 2 Full marriage cohabitation history
Annual status updates
1991 Wave 1
1998 Wave 8 Relationship questions
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1998 Wave 8 Relationship questions
1992 Wave 2 Full marriage cohabitation history
Annual status updates
1991 Wave 1
Annual status updates
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1998 Wave 8 Relationship questions
1992 Wave 2 Full marriage cohabitation history
Annual status updates
Annual status updates
1991 Wave 1
2003 Wave 13 Relationship questions repeat
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1998 Wave 8 Relationship questions
2003 Wave 13 Relationship questions repeat
1992 Wave 2 Full marriage cohabitation history
Annual status updates
Annual status updates
Annual status updates
1991 Wave 1
2006 Wave 16
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Percentage distribution of marital and cohabiting
status, by birth cohort, women, 2003
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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?

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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 Dont know

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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 Dont know

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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

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Percentage distribution of reported advantages of
cohabitation relative to marriage, currently
cohabiting respondents, 1998 and 2003.
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Percentage distribution of reported disadvantages
of cohabitation relative to marriage, currently
cohabiting respondents, 1998 and 2003.
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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.
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Percentage distribution of future relationship
expectations, by duration of current cohabiting
relationship (n1,015 respondents), 2003
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distribution of union expectations, by prior
live-in relationship, 1998 and 2003
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Do individuals achieve their relationship
expectations?
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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

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Do couples report conflicting relationship
attitudes and expectations?
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distribution couple expectations, 1998 and
2003, first unions only
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Percentage distribution of relationship outcomes
by 1998 relationship expectations, cohabiting
couples.
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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?