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Men’s first partnership formation in four former state-socialist countries during the transition period
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.
Funding
the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 320116 for the research project FamiliesAndSocieties
the Swedish Research Council grant to the Linneaus Center on Social Policy and Family Dynamics in Europe, SPaDE (grant number 349-2007-8701)
History
ISSN
2002-617XOriginal title
Men’s first partnership formation in four former state-socialist countries during the transition periodOriginal language
- English
Publication date
2020-03-12Associated Publication
https://doi.org/10.24193/RJPS.2019.2.03Usage metrics
Keywords
first unionmarriagecohabitationeducational attainmentGenerations and Gender SurveyBulgariaHungaryPolandRomaniaStockholm Reports in DemographySociologiska institutionenDepartment of SociologySUDAStockholm University Demography UnitStockholms universitets demografiska avdelningDemography not elsewhere classifiedSociology
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