Towards a new understanding of cohabitation: Insights from focus group research across Europe and Australia

Background: Across the industrialized world, more couples are living together without marrying. Although researchers have compared cohabitation cross-nationally using quantitative data, few have compared union formation using qualitative data. Objective: We use focus group research to compare social norms of cohabitation and marriage in Australia and nine countries in Europe. We explore questions such as: what is the meaning of cohabitation? To what extent is cohabitation indistinguishable from marriage, a prelude to marriage, or an alternative to being single? Are the meanings of cohabitation similar across countries? Methods: Collaborators conducted seven to eight focus groups in each country using a standardized guideline. They analyzed the discussions with bottom-up coding in each thematic area. They then collated the data in a standardized report. The first and second authors systematically analyzed the reports, with direct input from collaborators. Results: The results describe a specific picture of union formation in each country. However, three themes emerge in all focus groups: commitment, testing, and freedom. The pervasiveness of these concepts suggests that marriage and cohabitation have distinct meanings, with marriage representing a stronger level of commitment. Cohabitation is a way to test the relationship, and represents freedom. Nonetheless, other discourses emerged, suggesting that cohabitation has multiple meanings. Conclusions: This study illuminates how context shapes partnership formation, but also presents underlying reasons for the development of cohabitation. We find that the increase in cohabitation has not devalued the concept of marriage, but has become a way to preserve marriage as an ideal for long-term commitment

Childlessness and Intergenerational Transfers in Later Life

First Online: 13 January 2017Childlessness in later life has been attracting increased attention from researchers and policy makers. Yet a number of misconceptions about childlessness among the elderly remain, such as the claim that elderly childless people are mainly on the receiving end of intergenerational exchanges, or that they are a homogeneous group. Contrary to these assumptions, we find that elderly childless people give as well as receive, and that parental status is a continuum, ranging from full childlessness across several intermediary conditions to full current natural parenthood. In a study of the elderly population across 11 European countries, we show that non-parents make significant contributions to their social networks of family and friends through financial and time transfers, and that the latter in particular differ little from those of natural parents. The same applies to their participation in charitable and voluntary work. Different parental statuses are significantly associated with the various dimensions of giving and receiving. Social parents (i.e., people who have no natural children, but who have adopted, foster, or stepchildren) are shown to be much more similar to natural parents than to non-parents. Family recomposition thus does not seem to inhibit intergenerational exchanges, as long as social parents have sufficient contact with their non-natural social children. On the other hand, parents who have lost contact with their children – natural or otherwise – are likely to require more formal care in later life

Analyzing Childlessness

Childlessness has been on the rise in many European societies. In Germany, the UK, Austria, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, childlessness has increased starting with the 1950s cohorts. In these countries, about 20 % of the women born around 1965 will remain childless. In southern Europe and the former state-socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the rise in levels of childlessness is a more recent phenomenon. Yet among younger cohorts in these countries, childlessness has reached levels of 15 % or higher. In this introductory chapter, we summarize the long-term trends in childlessness and discuss the differences between European countries in the prevalence of childlessness. We also outline the structure and the logic of this volume

A Reflection on Economic Uncertainty and Fertility in Europe: The Narrative Framework

none5openVignoli, Daniele; Guetto, Raffaele; Bazzani, Giacomo; Pirani, Elena; Minello, AlessandraVignoli, Daniele; Guetto, Raffaele; Bazzani, Giacomo; Pirani, Elena; Minello, Alessandr