Men’s First Partnership Formation in Four Former State-socialist Countries during the Transition Period

Livia Oláh Sz,Cornelia Mureşan, ,Stockholm University, Department Of Sociology, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden

doi:10.24193/rjps.2019.2.03

Abstract

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.

Highlights

This study seeks to provide a better understanding of changes in especially men’s partnership formation patterns in the former state-socialist countries focusing on the period from the 1980s to the early 2000s when the transition to a market economy took place
Based on data of the Gender and Generations Surveys we have analyzed trends, age-profiles and gender differences in the effects of educational attainment on entering non-marital cohabitation versus direct marriage, that is marrying without cohabiting with the partner first
Despite similarities in the political and economic contexts, distinct country-specific patterns have been noted with respect to first union formation

Summary

Introduction

This study seeks to provide a better understanding of changes in especially men’s partnership formation patterns in the former state-socialist countries focusing on the period from the 1980s to the early 2000s when the transition to a market economy took place (see Philipov and Dorbritz, 2003). A random sample of women and men aged [18-79] years were interviewed in each country. Our subsample contains unpartnered men and women who were in the agerange [15- 40] years in the period of interest given early partnership patterns in the region. We seek to gain better insight in whether and how the major societal transformation, that is, the fall of state-socialism (dated to late 1989-early 1990) influenced first partnership formation patterns in the countries studied. With focus on the entire period, only Bulgarians are seen to display a clear preference for cohabitation (66%) compared to direct marriage, whereas the percentages of marital unions are higher than those of cohabitations in the other three countries (Table 1)

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