Living apart together in contemporary Spain: Diverse motivations across life stages.

Living-apart-together (LAT) partnerships are gaining prominence in many high-income societies, prompting ongoing discussions about their significance and their role in the family formation process. This study provides a contemporary update on LAT relationships in Spain, with a specific emphasis on variations across different life stages. The study focuses on several key aspects: (1) recent trends in the prevalence of LAT relationships, (2) socio-demographic factors associated with being in a LAT relationship, (3) joint influence of both partners' characteristics, and (4) short-term intentions to co-reside. Using data from the 2018 Spanish Fertility Survey, we employ logistic regression models to analyze the factors influencing individuals' likelihood of being in a LAT relationship as opposed to a co-residential partnership. Our findings reveal a noticeable rise in LAT partnerships in Spain over the past two decades, except among the youngest age group. Personal motivations and socially attributed meanings of LAT relationships, however, differ depending on an individual's life stage. Among young adults, LAT partnerships largely serve as a transitional phase in the family formation process, preceding co-residence with a partner. In this early adulthood stage, unemployment and temporary work contracts - affecting any of the partners - often hinder household formation, but intentions to co-reside in the near future remain strong. In contrast, LAT partnerships in the mid-life stage often stem from a desire to maintain personal independence and are frequently linked to prior partnership and reproductive biographies.

Timing of a First Romantic Union Among Sexual Minority Young Adults.

Cohabitation and marriage are critical milestones during the transition to adulthood; however, there is limited research on the timing of young adults' first same-sex unions. There is some evidence that same-sex unions may be delayed, particularly for men. Further, formation of both same- and different-sex dating relationships, common among sexual minority young adults, may also extend to cohabitation and marriage. We used the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health to predict the timing of a first romantic union, defined as a cohabitation or marriage, among sexual minority young adults. We then distinguished between women and men and the timing of a different-sex versus a same-sex union. Compared with heterosexual young adults, lesbian and gay young adults entered a union at later ages (driven by men), whereas bisexual young adults entered a union at younger ages (driven by women). Lesbian and gay young adults who entered a first union with a same-sex partner did so at later ages than those who entered a first union with a different-sex partner. Results suggest that patterns of sexual minority dating relationship formation might extend to unions.

Cohabitation and Marriage Formation in Times of Fertility Decline: The Case of Sweden in the Twenty-First Century.

Developments over time in the prevalence of marriage and cohabitation formation has long received much interest, but less is known about more recent developments for different population subgroups in European countries. This applies as well to Sweden, a country considered a forerunner in family-demographic change. In contrast, much attention has been paid to the falling birth rates during the 2010s, and explanations that focus on the role of increasing uncertainties. In the Swedish case, the fertility decline has been documented across all main socio-demographic subgroups. The objective of this study is to examine whether the same situation holds for first marriage and cohabitation formation during the 2010s and the exceptional years of the Covid-19 pandemic. Based on Swedish population registers, including with new cohabitation data, we present annual indices of first marriage formation (1991-2022) and cohabitation formation (2012-2022) across a number of socio-demographic strata. We demonstrate a continuous decline in first marriage formation since the early 2010s with an additional sharp dip during the pandemic and a post-pandemic recovery. In contrast, there was a remarkable stability in cohabitation formation during 2012-2022. Although socio-demographic groups differ in their overall levels of marriage and cohabitation formation, the recent trends are strikingly similar across groups. Cohabiting couples, across population subgroups, have become less inclined to transition their union status to a more committed level, as manifested by marriage or parenthood. This occurred in spite of a positive economic climate in the 2010s and stable family policies, indicating that other forces are at play.

A Precarious Path to Partnership? The Moderating Effects of Labour Market Regulations on the Relationship Between Unstable Employment and Union Formation in Europe.

Rising employment uncertainty featured by higher risks of being temporarily employed or unemployed is often seen as the driving force behind delayed and declined partnering in Western countries. However, such an employment-partnering relationship is contextualized by labour market institutions and thus could diverge across countries over time. This paper aims to investigate how country-level variations in labour market regulations moderate individual-level effects of unstable employment on union formation, including the transitions into marriage or cohabitation unions. Using comparative panel data for 26 countries from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (the years 2010-2019), our multilevel fixed effects models showed that temporary employment and unemployment negatively affected the probability of union formation for single women and men in Europe. Moreover, the negative relationship between unstable employment and union formation was reinforced when labour market reforms were stimulating insider-outsider segregations or decreasing welfare provisions. Specifically, stricter employment protection legislations and higher coverage rates of collective bargaining agreements could reinforce the negative effects of temporary employment and unemployment on union formation, while more generous provisions of unemployment benefits could buffer such negative effects.

The trifecta of adulthood: Housing, partnering and childbearing trajectories.

Substantial changes in residential transitions and family formation patterns have been observed in Western societies, but less attention has been paid to the de-standardisation of adulthood pathways in East Asian contexts, where unique social, economic and cultural circumstances may produce diverse trajectories that are less explored in existing theoretical and empirical frameworks. Adopting a life course perspective, this study identifies the multi-trajectories of housing, partnering and childbearing across adulthood in Taiwan, a setting marked by high housing costs and low fertility rates. Data from the Taiwanese Panel Study of Family Dynamics 2000-2020 (N = 6,931) were used for group-based trajectory modelling, and mixed-effects multinomial regression was employed to examine the likelihood of group membership given early-life resources and social origin. Six common housing-partnering-childbearing trajectories were identified. The most prevalent living arrangement was living in parental homes (50.7%), followed by rental homes (25%), self-owned homes (15.5%) and dorms or other (8.8%). Union formation generally precedes childbearing, whereas housing transitions may occur at various time points. Young adults' home-leaving and homeownership access appear to be closely related to their parental backgrounds, such as their parents' educational attainment and occupational status. Overall, the findings are consistent with the de-standardisation of pathways to adulthood, demonstrating the diversity in adult trajectories and the lack of a single dominant pattern.

Union formation, within-couple dynamics, and child well-being: A global macrolevel perspective.

Studies on global changes in families have greatly increased over the past decade, adopting both a country-specific and, more recently, a cross-national comparative perspective. While most studies are focused on the drivers of global changes in families, little comparative research has explored the implications of family processes for the health and well-being of children. This study aims to fill this gap and launch a new research agenda exploring the intergenerational implications of union-formation and within-couple dynamics for children's health and well-being across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), both globally, regionally, and by the stage of fertility transition. We do so by adopting a macro-level perspective and a multi-axis conceptualization of children's outcomes - health at birth, health in later life, and schooling - and leveraging Demographic and Health Survey and World Bank data across 75 LMICs. Our results show that in societies where partnerships are characterized by more equal status between spouses - i.e., where the age range between spouses and differences in years of schooling between partners are narrower - children fare better on several outcomes. These associations are particularly strong in mid- and high-fertility settings. Despite a series of regularities, our results also highlight a set of findings whereby, at a macro-level, the prevalence of marriage and divorce/separation are not invariably associated with children's outcomes, especially in LMICs where fertility is comparatively lower. We document little cross-regional heterogeneity, primarily highlighting the centrality of demographic factors such as age vis-à-vis, for instance, region-specific characteristics that are more tied to the social fabric of specific societies.

Diferencia de edad entre cónyuges por nivel educativo en América Latina. El caso de Bolivia, Ecuador y Uruguay / Diferença de idade entre cônjuges por nível de escolaridade na América Latina. O caso de Bolívia, Equador e Uruguai / Spousal age difference by education in Latin America. The case of Bolivia, Ecuador and Uruguay

Resumen El objetivo del estudio es hacer un análisis descriptivo de la asociación entre la educación y la diferencia de edad entre los cónyuges en uniones de distinto sexo y conocer cómo ha evolucionado esta relación a lo largo de las cohortes en las últimas décadas a la luz del incremento del nivel educativo de la población en América Latina, en particular de las mujeres. Se hizo un análisis descriptivo utilizando muestras de rondas censales desde 1970 hasta 2010 de tres países de la región, Bolivia, Ecuador y Uruguay, seleccionando a hombres y a mujeres de 25 a 29 años de edad. Tanto en hombres como en mujeres, no se observa en general un descenso significativo de la diferencia etaria a lo largo de las cohortes. Mientras en las mujeres se observó una relación negativa entre la diferencia etaria entre cónyuges y nivel educativo, en los hombres se constató mayor heterogeneidad entre los países.

Resumo O objetivo do estudo é realizar uma análise descritiva da associação entre escolaridade e diferença de idade entre cônjuges em uniões de diferente sexo e como essa relação evoluiu ao longo das coortes nas últimas décadas em função do aumento da escolaridade da população da América Latina, especialmente para as mulheres. Foram utilizadas amostras de rodadas dos censos de 1970 a 2010 de três países da região − Bolívia, Equador e Uruguai −, selecionando homens e mulheres de 25 a 29 anos de idade. Para o total da amostra, não foi observada diminuição significativa na diferença de idade ao longo das coortes. Para as mulheres, verificou--se relação negativa entre a diferença de idade entre os cônjuges e a escolaridade. Para os homens, observou-se maior heterogeneidade entre os países.

Abstract The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between education and the age gap between spouses in heterosexual unions. The study also examines how this association has changed over time in different cohorts, especially among women, in the context of educational expansion in Latin America. The research used the data collected from census rounds conducted between 1970 and 2010 in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Uruguay. The sample included men and women aged between 25 to 29. The findings reveal that there was no significant decrease in the age difference throughout the cohorts for both men and women. However, a negative relationship was observed between the spousal age difference and educational level in women. On the other hand, men showed greater heterogeneity between countries.

Choosing a Major and a Partner: Field of Study and Union Formation Among College-Educated Women in Europe.

In this paper, we explore the patterns of assortative mating among college-educated women who graduated from typically female, typically male, or mixed disciplines. Using a set of cross-sectional observations of a single cohort of female graduates (2010) from European Union Labour Force Survey data and applying multilevel multinomial logit models, we estimated the relative risk of living with a college-educated partner (homogamy), living with less educated partner (hypogamy), or being single. Focusing on the first five years after graduation, the analysis demonstrated that field of study is a significant predictor of mating behaviour. Women with degrees in male-dominated fields are less likely to partner down with less educated men. The mating advantage of women from male-dominated fields is stronger in countries with a higher female employment rate. Furthermore, more liberal gender roles seem to increase the level of singlehood among women from male-dominated fields. Finally, women from female-dominated and mixed disciplines are more likely to partner down if the man graduated from a male-typical discipline. However, among women from male-dominated disciplines, such a trade-off was not observed. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10680-022-09621-8.

The Rising Midlife First Marriage Rate in the U.S.

Objective: This study documented change in the midlife first marriage rate for U.S. adults aged 40-59 between 1990 and 2019 and assessed the sociodemographic correlates of midlife first marriage formation for today's women and men. Background: Median ages at first marriage are at record highs for women and men, signaling that marriage may be increasingly occurring at older ages. However, first marriage formation among midlife adults remains largely overlooked. Method: Data from the 1990 U.S. Vital Statistics and the 2010 and 2019 American Community Survey (ACS) were used to estimate change in women's and men's first marriage rates across age groups, with a focus on how the rate has changed for midlife adults. Average marginal effects (AMEs) were derived from logistic regression analyses that drew on the 2019 ACS to examine associations between sociodemographic factors and midlife first marriage formation for women and men. Results: Since 1990, the midlife first marriage rate has increased by 75% for women and 45% for men. The shares of women and men entering a first marriage who were aged 40-59 quadrupled between 1990 and 2019 (rising from 2% to 9% among women and from 3% to 12% among men). Some of the well-established predictors of first marriage in young adulthood operated uniquely for first marriage formation in midlife. Conclusion: Future research on first marriage formation should incorporate midlife adults.

Union Formation Expectations among Older Adults Who Live Apart Together in the USA.

There is an ongoing debate over whether living apart together (LAT) relationships are simply long-term relationships or alternatives to cohabitation or marriage. This study examined cohabitation and marriage expectations among older adults who LAT in the United States to address the debate. The analyses also compared the marriage expectations of older adults who LAT and cohabitors. Using data from the 2011 Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS), we examined the union expectations of 250 individuals who LAT and 234 cohabitors. After providing a demographic portrait of older adults who LAT, we used ordered logistic regression models to predict their cohabitation and marriage expectations. Additional models predicted marriage expectations for older adults who LAT versus cohabitors. Older adults who LAT were unlikely to expect to formalize their unions. Adults who LAT were less likely to expect marriage than cohabitors. LAT relationships appear to be long-term partnerships in the United States.

"Thank U, Next"? Repartnering and the Household Division of Labor.

Objective: Drawing on life course and gender theories, this study tests competing hypotheses about the effect of repartnering on women's and men's levels and shares of housework. Background: Amidst increasing cohabitation rates and union instability, women and men are likely to form and dissolve multiple marital and non-marital unions with different partners over the life course. However, most of our knowledge about the role of past relationships are based on cross-sectional studies comparing first- and higher-order union. This study investigates whether people change their housework arrangements upon repartnering and whether women and men experience similar patterns of change in heterosexual relationships. Method: The analysis draws on 40 years of longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and a sample of 1,897 women and men who were observed in two sequential heterosexual unions. The author used fixed-effects models to estimate change in housework behavior upon repartnering. Results: Overall, the results show stability in housework behavior upon repartnering once controlling for other life course changes that concur with repartnering. Women continued doing the majority of housework upon repartnering. Conclusion: The results suggest that forming a new heterosexual union evokes gender scripts which overall maintains the gendered housework behavior. Although housework is dynamic over the life course, the gender dynamics that shape housework is stable amid union instability.

Less Partnering, Less Children, or Both? Analysis of the Drivers of First Birth Decline in Finland Since 2010.

In the 2010s, fertility has declined in the Nordic countries, most strikingly in Finland, and first births drive the decline. It remains unclear whether this decline results from decreased fertility within unions, changing union dynamics, or both. Thus, we investigated changes in the union-first birth dynamics from 2000 through 2018 in Finland using full-coverage population register data and an incidence-based multistate model. To do so, we calculated the yearly age-specific transition probabilities across states of single, cohabitation, marriage, and first births among 15- to 45-year-old childless men and women. We found lower fertility rates in unions after 2010, increasing dissolution rates amongst cohabiting couples, and long-term declines in the transition to marriage. Counterfactual simulations showed that, for the decline in first births since 2010, fertility within unions matters more (three-quarters) than union dynamics (one-quarter): that is, lower fertility in cohabitating and married individuals explained 42% and 13% of the decline, respectively, and decreasing fertility rates among couples entering cohabitation explained a further 17%. Decreasing marriage (19%) and cohabitation rates (2-4%) as well as higher union dissolution rates (6%) explained a smaller share of the first birth decline. The decline in first births was somewhat sharper among the lower social strata, but across strata the decreasing first birth transitions in unions explained most of the decline. To conclude, while changing union dynamics provide a partial explanation, postponing or foregoing fertility within unions represents the primary reason for the fertility decline. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10680-022-09605-8.

The Transition to a Coresidential Partnership: Who Moves and Who Has the Partner Move In?

Moving into a joint household is an important step in the process of union formation. While a growing body of literature investigates differences between those couples who start coresidence and those who do not, we know little about the likelihood of moving upon the start of coresidence. The aim of this paper is to investigate how individual and couple-level characteristics are associated with moving, or having a partner move in, at the start of coresidence. We use data from 10 waves of the German Family Panel pairfam for those who started coresidence (n = 983) and estimate logistic regression models of moving versus having a partner move in. The respondents in the sample are quite young with a mean age of 27. For long-distance relationships, those with a higher level of education than their partner and women who were living in close proximity to their parents were less likely to move. In short-distance relationships, respondents living in the parental home or in crowded housing were more likely to move than those living in uncrowded housing. In contrast with previous research, we did not find that women were more likely to move than men. Our results highlight that factors like educational resources, housing demands, and local family ties have differential effects on moving decisions at the start of coresidence depending on the distance moved.

Microsimulation of Household and Marital Transitions Leading to Childlessness Among Dutch Women Born Between 1971 and 2000.

After reaching historically low levels among the women born in the early 1940s, childlessness has been increasing in most Western countries among women born in the 1950s and 1960s. This increase took place as patterns of transition to adulthood have become increasingly late, protracted, and complex. Yet, it is precisely those women who enter a first relationship late, spend more time as single, and experience union instability who more often remain childless. This suggests that levels of childlessness will continue to increase as younger cohorts complete their childbearing histories. In this study, we use microsimulation to project the household and union formation histories of cohorts of Dutch women born between 1971 and 2000. Results suggest that childlessness will actually decrease among cohorts born between 1971 and 1983 and then increase among those born between 1984 and 2000. The decrease occurs as pathways of household and union formation become later, more protracted, and more complex, but also as cohabiting women start to exhibit a higher propensity to become mothers. The increase, on the other hand, occurs as pathways become somewhat less protracted and complex, but also as the propensity of cohabiting women to become mothers returns to previous levels and as age at leaving the parental home strongly rises. Childlessness levels appear to increasingly depend on the childbearing decisions of cohabiting couples and on age at leaving the parental home.

Internet access and partnership formation in the United States.

The Internet has fundamentally altered how we communicate and access information and who we can interact with. However, the implications of Internet access for partnership formation are theoretically ambiguous. We examine their association using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY97) and Current Population Survey (CPS) in the United States. We find that the relationship between Internet access and partnership states (in the NLSY97) or partnership status (in the CPS) is age-dependent. While negative at the youngest adult ages, the association becomes positive as individuals reach their mid- to late 20s, for both same-sex and different-sex partnerships. The results suggest that Internet access is positively associated with union formation when individuals enter the stage in the young adult life course when they feel ready to commit to a long-term partnership. Our study contributes to a growing literature that highlights the implications of digital technologies for demographic processes.Supplementary material for this article is available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/00324728.2021.1999485.

First union formation among the children of immigrants: A population-wide study in Norway.

Using Norwegian register data on the total population of individuals who were native-born or who immigrated prior to age 18, this study investigated differences in first union formation across migrant generations, global regions of origin, and gender. Cohabitation was the preferred route into partnerships for all groups, but it was most common among those with either one or two native-born parents. Results provided evidence of a generational gradient in marriage, whereby the native-born children of two immigrants and those immigrating in ages below 13 were less likely to marry than immigrants arriving as teens. Those native born with one native and one immigrant parent were least likely to marry, but most likely to cohabit. The children of immigrants originating from Asia, MENA and Eastern Europe were more marriage prone, whereas those of South-American and European origins were more cohabitation prone, than those originating from elsewhere. Women of most origins and generations more often married compared with men, and this gender gap was largest among those originating from MENA.

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

This study investigates partnership transitions of young adults born between 1974 and 1990 in England and Wales. These cohorts were affected by the expansion of higher education, increasing gender equality, and ideational changes, but faced increased economic precarity caused by the economic and housing crisis. Given these changes, it is likely that the partnership experiences of young adults including marriage, cohabitation, separation, and repartnering have also undergone considerable changes. We apply competing risks event history analysis to combined data from the British Household Panel Survey and the UK Household Longitudinal Study to determine how birth cohort, gender, socio-economic background, and educational attainment influence partnership changes. We study the transition into and out of first cohabitation and marriage and repartnering between age 16 and 27. Cohabitation has become a universal form of first union among young adults born in the late 1970s and 1980s regardless of their socio-economic background or educational level, but their first unions do not last long. While cohabiters are equally likely to marry or separate in the oldest cohort (1974-1979), cohabiting unions are very likely to end in separation among the two youngest cohorts (1980-1984 and 1985-1990). Consequently, repartnering has become common; those in the youngest cohort repartner rather quickly suggesting that an increasing number of individuals experience multiple partnerships. Highly educated young adults have higher rates of entry into first cohabitation than their lower educated counterparts across all cohorts. However, we do not find differences in cohabitation outcomes by socio-economic background and educational level indicating that the main changes have taken place across birth cohorts. The results also suggest that there is a convergence in partnership experiences among young men and women. The increased prevalence of sliding into and out of cohabitation could indicate significant changes in the meaning young people attach to first partnerships.

Mating Market and Dynamics of Union Formation.

The paper investigates the relationship between structural partner market constraints and the timing and educational sorting of unions in Germany (1985-2018). We integrate the literature on the effect of the reversed gender gap in education on educational assortative mating, with a focus on mating dynamics and the measurement of the partner market over the life course. We concentrate on two particular educational groups, low-educated men and highly educated women, those with worsening mating prospects and more subject to experience hypogamous unions. Our results show that the local education-specific mating squeeze influences union formation, its timing, and educational sorting. Indeed, for the two groups, the increasing supply of highly educated women in the partner market increases the likelihood of remaining single or establishing an hypogamous union, where she is higher educated than he. In line with search theory, we find the effects of the mating squeeze to become particularly visible after people turn 30 years of age. This is true for the risk of remaining single and forming an hypogamous union. We underline the necessity to study assortative mating and union formation from a dynamic perspective, taking into account changing structural conditions during the partner search process.

Genome-wide analysis of the AINTEGUMENTA-like (AIL) transcription factor gene family in pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata Duch.) and CmoANT1.2 response in graft union healing.

AINTEGUMENTA-like (AIL) proteins are members of the APETALA 2/ETHYLENE RESPONSE FACTOR (AP2/ERF) domain family of transcription factors involved in plant growth, development, and abiotic stress responses. However, the biological functions of AIL members in pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata Duch.) remain unknown. In this study, we identified 12 AIL genes in the pumpkin genome encoding proteins predicted to be localized in the nucleus. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the AIL gene family could be classified into six major subfamilies, with each member encoding two AP2/ERF domains separated by a linker region. CmoAIL genes were expressed at varying levels in the examined tissues, and CmoANT genes showed different expression patterns under auxin (IAA), 1-naphthylphthalamic acid (NPA), and abscisic acid (ABA) treatments. Ectopic overexpression of CmoANT1.2 in Arabidopsis increased organ size and promoted growth of grafted plants by accelerating graft union formation. However, there was no significant difference at the graft junction for WT/WT and WT/ANT under IAA or NPA treatments. Taken together, the results of this study provide critical information about CmoAIL genes and their encoded proteins, and suggest future work should investigate the functions of CmoANT1.2 in the grafting process in pumpkin.

A Sequence-Analysis Approach to the Study of the Transition to Adulthood in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.

This study investigates whether young people in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have experienced processes of destandardization of the life course similar to those observed in high-income societies. We provide two contributions to the relevant literature. First, we use data from 263 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) across 69 LMICs, offering the richest comparative account to date of women's transition to adulthood (TTA) patterns in the developing world. In so doing, we adopt sequence analysis and shift the focus from individual life-course events-namely first sexual intercourse, first union, and first birth-to a visually appealing approach that allows us to describe interrelations among events. By focusing on the analysis of trajectories rather than the occurrence of single events, the study provides an in-depth focus on the timing of events, time intervals between events, and how experiencing (or not) one event might have consequences for subsequent markers in the TTA in cross-national comparative perspective. Second, we identify clusters of TTA and explore their changes across cohorts by region and household location of residence (rural vs. urban). We document significant differences by macro-regions, yet relative stability across cohorts. We interpret the latter as suggestive of cultural specificities that make the TTA resistant to change and slow to converge across regions, if converging at all. Also, we find that much of the difference across cluster typologies ensues from variation related to when the transition begins (early vs. late), rather than from the duration between events, which tends to be uniformly quick across three out of four clusters.