The article focuses on the relationship between marital status & life satisfaction in the countries of Europe. The first part of the article discusses subjective evaluations of life satisfaction & the theoretical concepts that explain differences in the levels of life satisfaction according to marital status. The second part of the article is devoted to empirical analyses of data from the European Social Survey (ESS), the results of which indicate that in the countries studied married people tend to be more satisfied with life than others, even though the strength of this effect varies. The differences in the effect of marriage cannot be ascribed to a given society's divorce rate. In some countries the life satisfaction of the cohabiting population is almost as high as for married people, while in other countries it is closer to the level of life satisfaction observed among single people, & in other countries the level of satisfaction of the cohabitating individuals lies midway between married & single people.
The article looks at the relationship between partnership formation & women's education in the Czech Republic. Education can serve as a proxy for cultural capital & earning potential. Therefore, it is expected to play a significant role in partnership formation. Analyses of data from the Family & Fertility Survey show that the level of education has an impact on the timing of the first union. However, when school enrollment is controlled, education does not play a significant role in the tendency to enter into marriage or cohabitation. It is not possible to demonstrate that the accumulation of human capital itself has an impact on union formation in the Czech Republic. Nor do data confirm the expectation that the influence of education should increase after the collapse of communism & the introduction of the market economy.
The article investigates the differences between marriage & nonmarital cohabitation. The main perspective stems from the theory of the social exchange. The author concentrates on the narrow question of financial transfers between partners & presents the hypothesis that cohabitation should represent a lesser bond union because it does not protect investments into partnerships, & it should therefore be more egalitarian. However, this hypothesis is not confirmed by the data. Even though cohabitation is indeed a departure from the traditional family pattern, it is not a departure in the direction of greater egalitarianism but rather in the direction of a female breadwinner. The social exchange theory would predict that the shift towards the female breadwinner should be compensated by the greater participation of men in the household chores. This expectation is confirmed by the data.
This paper investigates money management practices in private households. It compares married and cohabiting couples across four countries with different levels of institutionalization of cohabitation and different welfare regimes (Denmark, Spain, France, and the United States). Using data from the International Social Survey Program 2002 module on Changing Family Roles (ISSP 2002), this study shows that the legal status of the union is one of the strongest predictors of the money pooling practices in all four countries. Cohabitors tend to choose independent money management more often than married couples and this finding holds even after controlling for a range of socio-economic and attitudinal characteristics. Moreover, the effect of the union type is rather uniform across these four countries despite their institutional differences.
This study investigates the relative similarity of educational assortative mating patterns among young married and cohabiting couples using Canadian census data from 1991, 1996, and 2001. It contrasts the patterns observed in Quebec with those observed elsewhere in Canada, as these regions display very different demographic trends, especially with respect to cohabitation. First, we hypothesize that the gap between married and unmarried couples will be smaller in Quebec, as cohabitation is more common in this province. Second, we suggest that the double-selection hypothesis predicting higher educational homogamy among married couples should be more appropriate to explain the behaviours observed in Canada outside of Quebec, whereas the utilitarian theory predicting higher educational homogamy among cohabiting couples should apply better to the French province situation. The results fully support our first hypothesis. However, the analyses do not unambiguously confirm our second hypothesis concerning the direction of the differences. Even though we find that married couples living outside of Quebec generally display higher levels of educational homogamy than cohabiting partners, no clear trend is observed in Quebec. In addition, our data do not reveal any clear change over the period considered.
Résumé. Cet article examine le degré d'homogamie éducative des jeunes couples mariés et en union libre à partir des données du recensement canadien de 2001. Il compare les comportements des couples québécois à ceux observés ailleurs au Canada, compte tenu de l'évolution différente qu'ont connue ces deux régions, particulièrement en regard des unions libres. Dans un premier temps, nous faisons l'hypothèse que l'écart entre couples mariés et cohabitants sera plus faible au Québec, l'union libre étant plus répandue dans cette province. En deuxième lieu, nous suggérons que l'hypothèse de la «double-sélection» prédisant un plus haut niveau d'homogamie éducative chez les couples mariés est plus appropriée pour rendre compte des comportements observés au Canada en dehors du Québec, alors que la théorie utilitariste prédisant une homogamie éducative plus grande parmi les couples en union libre colle davantage à la situation de la province francophone. Les résultats de l'analyse ne confirment pas nos hypothèses. L'écart qui sépare mariage et union libre est relativement semblable dans les deux régions du pays et les couples cohabitants affichent dans l'ensemble un niveau d'homogamie plus faible que leurs homologues mariés.
