Men’s first partnership formation in four former state-socialist countries during the transition period
Cornelia Mureşan
Livia Olah
10.17045/sthlmuni.11973207.v1
https://su.figshare.com/articles/preprint/Men_s_first_partnership_formation_in_four_former_state-socialist_countries_during_the_transition_period/11973207
Non-marital cohabitation has
become increasingly common in advanced societies, although somewhat less so in
Central-Eastern Europe in the period immediately following the fall of state
socialism. In this paper we focus on changes in men’s first partnership
patterns in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Romania between the 1980s and early
2000s, specifically addressing gender differences with respect to the effects
of educational attainment. Data on men and women extracted from the first round
of Generations and Gender Programme in these countries are analysed, relying on
proportional hazards event history models with piecewise constant baseline
intensity for entering a first union (cohabitation or direct marriage – as
competing risks). We find a positive educational gradient for marriage
formation among men in all countries analysed, but only in Hungary for women.
No such gradient is seen for cohabitation among men with the exception of
Poland. The popularity of cohabitation increased over time while the trend for
marriage entry declined, resulting in non-marital unions replacing marriage as
the main form of first partnerships by the late 1990s-early 2000s, except for
Romania. Declining marriage trends paralleled by women’s growing educational
advantage are likely to be related to the limited (and decreasing) supply of
highly educated men as most attractive marriage partners in the region. The
main contribution of this study is to fill the knowledge gap on changes in
family formation patterns with emphasis on men’s first co-residential unions in
Central-Eastern Europe in the period of major societal transition. The results
point to the importance of gendered effects of educational attainment with
respect to the type of first union formed.
2020-03-12 09:53:10
first union
marriage
cohabitation
educational attainment
Generations and Gender Survey
Bulgaria
Hungary
Poland
Romania
Stockholm Reports in Demography
Sociologiska institutionen
Department of Sociology
SUDA
Stockholm University Demography Unit
Stockholms universitets demografiska avdelning
Demography not elsewhere classified
Sociology