The effect of pregnancy in cohabiting unions on marriage in Canada, the Netherlands, and Latvia

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Mills, Melinda^a | Trovato, Frank^b

Affiliations: [a] Fakultät für Soziologie, Universität Bielefeld, Postfach 10 01 31, 33501 Bielefeld, Germany. Tel.: +49 521 106 4339; Fax: +49 521 106 6443; E-mail: [email protected] | [b] Department of Sociology, 5-21 Tory Building, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2H4, Canada. Tel: +11 780 492 5934/5234; Fax: +11 780 492 7196; E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: Recently, the western world has witnessed among young cohorts a significant rise in both cohabitation and out of wedlock births as well as an increasingly complex relationship between marriage and childbirth. This study follows previous investigations conducted by Blossfeld and colleagues [1] on the experience of pregnancy within cohabiting unions and how it conditions the likelihood of transition to formal marriage with the same partners. A hazard model with time-varying covariates is specified explicitly as time-dependent, with entry into first marriage as the dependent process and first pregnancy/birth as the explaining process. Our conceptual framework relies on the rational actor theory, which proposes that norm-guided and rational self-centred behaviour co-exist in the case when a pregnancy occurs in a consensual union and a decision is to be made by the couple with respect to marriage or non-marriage. Our test of this interrelated process is based on the experiences of Canada, Latvia, and the Netherlands. Findings suggest that the interdependencies of cohabitation, pregnancy, and marriage fit the model and are generally uniform processes across these societies. Slight country differences are attributed to attitudes and policies regarding cohabitation versus marriage and the acceptability of out of wedlock births.

DOI: 10.3233/SJU-2001-18107

Journal: Statistical Journal of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 103-118, 2001