Changing union formation patterns during young adulthood: challenges and opportunities for social research

Abstract 

Over the last decades, union formation patterns have been rapidly changing across European countries. Marriage has lost its centrality and alternative couple arrangements have emerged; also, singlehood has become increasingly common. This lecture aims at providing an overview of recent developments and at offering examples of research questions that can be answered using existing data. Findings on the economic factors associated with the transition to living together, based on the German Family Panel pairfam, will also be presented.
 

Speaker

Valeria Ferraretto, Researcher in Demography at the University of Bologna