Continued Cohabitation After the Decision to Separate: “Living Together Apart” in France

Abstract

AbstractObjectiveThis article examines situations where couples continue to live together under the same roof after deciding to separate.BackgroundSeparation is most often approached by researchers as a one‐off, clearly identifiable event. However, qualitative studies have shown that it is also a process and may include a period when the former partners continue to cohabit. This phenomenon is known as “Living Together Apart” (LTA).MethodFor the first time, data from the French survey of individual and conjugal trajectories (Etude des parcours individuels et conjugaux) conducted in 2013 and 2014 by the French Institute for Demographic Studies and the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies provide an opportunity to study LTA in quantitative terms. The survey was administered on a random representative sample drawn from the census and included a question module on separation arrangements. The authors' analysis is based mainly on logistic regressions to estimate the probability of having continued to live together and if so for how long.ResultsThe article shows that LTA is frequent and correlated with various sociodemographic factors such as the presence of children, shared ownership of goods, type of union, and age at separation. The duration of LTA is not associated with these factors, however, except the presence of children, which increases it.ConclusionThe main reasons for this living arrangement are linked to material constraints that oblige the expartners to share the same home and a desire to preserve the parental couple despite the breakdown of the conjugal couple.