Repartnering

This chapter examines repartnering over a 10-year period. Many people who have experienced relationship breakdowns go on to have new relationships. Repartnering, which is forming a new intimate relationship after the dissolution of a previous one, can take a number of forms. This is because of the widespread changes in the types of relationships available to people in Western-industrialized countries like Australia. Until the 1970s, repartnering almost exclusively took the form of remarriage. Over the last 30 years, cohabitation has increased considerably, resulting in four main patterns of repartnership: (1) consecutive marriages; (2) cohabitation with a new partner following a marriage; (3) marriage to a new partner following cohabitation with another partner; and (4) consecutive cohabitations. This chapter starts with a literature review and provides a theoretical lens that incorporates individual histories and social context for investigating repartnering. This is followed by a description of the data used to measure repartnering over a 10-year period. The analysis presented is based on retrospective and prospective longitudinal information available from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey (2001–2010). These data provide an opportunity to incorporate past relationships, family and fertility histories with current socio-demographic characteristics into understanding patterns of repartnering. The main emphasis of the chapter is on ‘who, when and how’ people repartner