Citation

Soons JPM, Kalmijn M. J. Marriage Fam. 2009; 71(5): 1141-1157.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, National Council on Family Relations, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1741-3737.2009.00660.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The study aims to assess, first, whether there is a gap in well-being between unmarried cohabitants and the married, second, if selection factors can explain this so-called cohabitation gap, and third, if the size of the cohabitation gap differs across countries and how this can be explained. We use pooled data from young adults (18–44) in 3 rounds of the European Social Survey (N ≅ 31, 500). Multilevel regression analyses show that there is a moderate cohabitation gap that can be partly explained with the selection factors material resources and religiosity. Country differences were clear and could partly be explained with the level of institutionalization: In countries where cohabitation is more accepted and more prevalent, the cohabitation gap is smaller.