This article examines whether there are any differences in the way in which married couples and unmarried cohabitating couples manage their incomes. Using data from the ISSP 1994 and the ISSP 2002 the author attempts to answer the question of whether over the course of the 1990s in the Czech Republic the character of unmarried cohabitation changed, and whether the economic arrangements of unmarried couples with children resemble those of married couples. Crosstabulation indicates that unmarried couples manage their respective incomes separately more often than married couples do. However, if we take into account the different socio-demographic and socio-economic structures of these couples, the differences in income management connected with marital status vanish. The results of a logistic regression show that separate financial management occurs more often among childless couples, people less satisfied with their family life, and those who have experienced the break-up of a partnership before. In the case where an unmarried couple is raising children, the household income arrangement of the partners is similar to that of married couples.
The paper focuses on the union formation in later life using SHARELIFE data from 13 European countries. First, it shows that proportion of single individuals aged 50-69 and the proportion of those who (re)partner vary significantly across European countries. The highest levels of (re)partnering were observed in Scandinavia and the lowest in Southern and Central Europe. Second, it shows that women are much less likely to enter a new coresidential union than men in all studied countries but the relative difference between men and women vary. The smallest difference was observed in Scandinavia and the Czech Republic, the largest in Southern Europe, Austria, and Switzerland. Third, repartnered individuals tend to be younger, more educated, and more likely divorced than widowed comparing to those who stay single., Dana Hamplová., and Obsahuje seznam literatury
This study analyses the first partnerships of women and men in the Czech Republic and focuses on a comparison of family behaviour before and after the politically and socially important watershed of 1989. The authors investigate the type of first partnership (cohabitation versus marriage) and its timing. It can be assumed that significant changes in partnership behaviour exhibit a different pattern according to educational group, and moreover that differences in the timing and type of first partnership might also be expected from the point of view of gender. Given the increasing proportion of children born outside wedlock, attention is devoted to the impact of pregnancy and childbirth on partnership strategies. The data used in the paper are taken from the ‘Generations and Gender Survey’ carried out in the Czech Republic in 2008. The retrospective character of these data provides information on partnership careers in the context of other significant life events., Anna Šťastná, Jana Paloncyová., Rubrika: Stati, 1 tabulka, 1 schéma, 5 grafů, Poznámky na str. 29 (4), Biografické poznámky o autorkách článku na str. 15, Obsahuje bibliografii, and Resumé o klíčová slova anglicky na str. 16
The article discusses the relationship between educational attainment and the existence of cohabitation in the Czech Republic. Cohabitation of unmarried partners is a timely topic given a constant growth of this form of relationship in the Czech society, which almost tripled between the years 1991 and 2011. Based on data from the ISSP 2012 quantitative survey, the article seeks to demonstrate whether the educational attainment of an individual or his/her partner is associated with whether or not they cohabitate. Cohabitation is juxtaposed to marriage as well as to living-apart-together relationships, with partners living in different households. Where methodologically feasible, the findings are verified on data from the
following surveys: European Value Study 2008, Our Society 2012 and European Social Survey 2012. However, most of the analyses rely exclusively on the more robust dataset of ISSP 2012. When split into the different categories of relationship and educational attainment, the other datasets analyzed did not provide sufficient samples for the necessary analyses.
The article builds on the socioeconomic Rational Choice Theory (Becker) and normative theory (Inglehart, Van de Kaa). RCT is primarily applied to the relationship between education and postponing marriage or cohabitation, while normative theory provides a perspective on the effect of education-related values on alternative relationship preferences or the decision never to marry.
In the analysis, we first verify whether educational attainment affects an individual’s relationship form (cohabitation vs. marriage). To determine the association between specific variables, we applied the chi-square test of independence (for the education variable recoded into three categories) and the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U Test (for the original scale variable). We were unable to confirm an immediate relationship between education and cohabitation in either of the datasets analyzed – the same results were attained when the analysis was replicated on EVS 2008, Our Society March 2012 and
ESS 2012 data. The authors suggest two possible interpretations of this finding. First, the perceived difference between long-term cohabitation and marriage is gradually decreasing in the Czech Republic. This argument is supported by the use of the term “de-facto marriage” as an equivalent of cohabitation in the Czech context. The second possible interpretation is based on the effect of factors that motivate both low-education and higher-education individuals to postpone marriage, namely lack of funds among the former and preference of education and career among the latter.
In the second part of the analysis, we study the relationship between educational attainment and cohabitation versus living-apart-together relationships. We tested the relationship using the non-parametric Mann-Whitney U Test on the original scale education variable. The analysis was performed on unmarried (divorced, widowed or single) individuals who have a partner. A difference was observed in the group of divorced cohabiters, where more educated individuals are less likely to share a household with their partner. In contrast, higher-income single partners are more likely to share a household. However, the relationship with education could not be verified for the latter group.
To sum up, the analysis reveals that single (younger) higher-income respondents are more likely to cohabit because they can afford sharing a household with their partner. In contrast, divorced (older) higher-income respondents are more likely to live in single-member households. This finding is primarily associated with respondent age, while education probably only takes effect in older age. In both groups, only the relationship with income, not education, was observed because divorced individuals are older than singles, on average.