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Committed to independence? An exploratory study of living-apart-together (LAT) in contemporary Sweden

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posted on 2020-07-17, 15:49 authored by Livia OlahLivia Olah, Lena Karlsson, Glenn Sandström

Sweden is among the countries with the highest share of single households in Europe, but not all are truly partnerless. We explore who are living-apart-together beyond ages of the late twenties and their potential vulnerability, analyzing data of the Swedish GGS. We apply multinomial logistic regression. The results show that vis-á-vis co-residence, LAT is more prevalent among: i) childless men than women, but the opposite is true for single parents; ii) the elderly (aged 70+); iii) those with long-term illness. Individuals engaged in LAT seem to be better off than singles, but are more likely to have economic difficulties than the co-residents. Neither growing up in a non-intact family, non-Swedish origin, metropolitan residence, nor educational attainment matter for living-apart-together rather than in any other living arrangement. The majority feels constrained to have separate households, rather than this being their choice, yet concerns of vulnerability in relation to LAT seem exaggerated.

Funding

the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working life and Welfare (FORTE), grant number 2016-07115

History

ISSN

2002-617X

Original title

Committed to independence? An exploratory study of living-apart-together (LAT) in contemporary Sweden

Original language

  • English

Publication date

2020-07-17