Title:
Does cohabitation provide weaker intergenerational bonds than marriage? A comparison between Italy and the United Kingdom

Abstract:
In this paper we explore whether the increasing emergence of cohabitation instead of or before marriage weakens family ties and intergenerational solidarity as suggested by previous research, based however, on a not clear distinction between different forms of cohabitation. We study the extent to which the partnership form entered by adult children (cohabitation vs. legal marriage) affects the frequency of contacts and visits between them and their parents. With empirical evidence from the Multiscopo survey (2003) for Italy and the British Household Panel Study (2001), we test the hypothesis that marriage might provide a more favourable locus for solidarity, exchange and emotional support between generations than cohabitation, as suggested by the, not well developed, literature. According to this literature, explanation of this phenomenon may be of two kinds: a) cohabitation goes along with a higher degree of individualisation, therefore of weakening of traditional family obligations; b) cohabitations are more vulnerable to breaking up, a phenomenon that also in marriage tends to weaken at least partly (along the gather-child line) intergenerational contacts and solidarity. A third explanation rather points to the fact that cohabitations are internally heterogeneous and involve a large quota of young cohabitants, that is of individuals and couples in a specific phase of establishing themselves as individual adults. This in turn explains both the higher vulnerability of cohabitations to break ups and the lower degree of involvement with family and kin. If long-term cohabitations were compared with marriages, and the age of partners controlled for in both situations, results might differ. We will test these hypotheses in two countries - the UK and Italy - in which cohabitations are differently developed. We will use multilevel analysis in acknowledgment to the nested nature of family ties.