Cohabitation, an Alternative to Marriage?: A Cross-National Study

ISBN-13: 9789400968745 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 203 str.

G.E. Wiersma

Opis

1. BACKGROUND In the last ten years there has been much popular discus- sion and also a great scholarly interest in the so-called "alternative lifestyles" (1). ESgecially, since the late 1J60's, a diversity of lifestyles other than the nuclear family began to emerge, according to demographic changes in household compositions during the past decade (US Bureau of Census, 1979; Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, 1930). One lifestyle, non-marital cohabitation, has increased most dra- matically during the ~ast ten years and is the subject of this study. The term cohabitation will be used exclusively throughout the remainder of this study to refer to hetero- sexual couples who are living together without being married legally. Despite its recent rapid increase, one should not overlook the fact that cohabitation, in comparison with legal marriage, remains an alternative practiced by a minority of the couples at any ?oint in time. For the Netherlands, it is estimated that 7 percent of all couples are living together unmarried, and 93 percent are married (Straver, 1981). This cohabitation rate is about twice as low when compared to rates in countries like Sweden and Denmark where they are 16 percent (the highest rate in Europe) and 13 percent (Trost, 1979), but still about twice as high when compared to the 3 percent estimate for the United States (Macklin, 1980).

Spis treści

1. Introduction.- 1. Background.- 2. Summary of the study design.- 2. Major Theme of the Study: Degree of Individuation.- 3. Statement of the Problem, Theoretical Framework Hypotheses, and Research Methodology.- 1. Statement of the problem.- 2. Theoretical framework, hypotheses and concepts.- 2.1. Introduction.- 2.2. The couple as a social system: its position.- 2.3. The couple as a social system: its structural-functional pattern.- 2.4. The couple as a social system: its psychological climate.- 2.5. Blue-print for an exploratory analysis of “Degree of Individuation”.- 3. Research design.- 4. Sampling and data-collection procedures.- 5. Questionnaire development and scale-construction.- 4. Cohabitation: A Comparative Descriptive Analysis with Marriage in the Netherlands and in the United States — A Test of Hypotheses.- 1. Introduction.- 2. The U.S. and Dutch sampling communities: a comparison.- 3. Some social-economic characteristics of cohabitants in comparison with marrieds.- 4. Some dyadic relationship characteristics of cohabitants in comparison with marrieds.- 5. Dyadic commitment of cohabitants in comparison with marrieds.- 6. The attitudes of cohabitants and marrieds towards marriage.- 7. Balance of power between cohabiting and married partners.- 8. Degree of individuation of cohabitants in comparison with marrieds.- 9. Summary.- 5. An Exploratory Analysis of the Differences in Degree of Individuation between Cohabiting and Matching Married Couples.- 1. Explanation of the analytical method.- 2. Discussion of the variables that influence “Individuation Difference”.- 3. Ranking of the predictors of “Individuation Differences”.- 4. Conclusion.- 6. Reflections.- References.- Appendix A.- Appendix B.- Appendix C.