Abstract

Emotional disclosure, self-determination and egalitarianism are considered central benefits of individualized relationships. Yet, the body of research linking relationship practices and union stability is sparse. We study the extent to which relationship practices in the spheres of intimacy, autonomy, and democracy affect the risk of union dissolution, comparing marriage and cohabitation. Using longitudinal data from nine waves of the German Pairfam survey, we predict union dissolution of n = 3,650 cohabiting and married women and men. Cohabiters report higher levels of individualized relationship practices compared to the married. Intimacy is the key dimension predicting union stability. Individuals thus exhibit relatively low resilience towards decline in emotional gratification in their couple relationships. Autonomy and democracy are not empirically relevant to predict union stability beyond the extent to which they were connected to levels of intimacy. Differences between cohabitation and marriage were marginal with spouses’ benefits from higher levels of intimacy for union stability being larger compared to cohabiting individuals. Our study contributes to the analytical clarification of the consequences of the changing meaning of intimate relationships in individualized societies, and ultimately, to cultural explanations for increased relationship instability.

中文翻译：

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个性化的关系实践和工会解散：婚姻与同居之间的差异

摘要

情绪公开，自决和平等主义被认为是个体化关系的主要好处。但是，将关系实践与工会稳定性联系起来的研究机构很少。通过比较婚姻和同居关系，我们研究了亲密，自治和民主领域中的关系实践在多大程度上影响了工会解散的风险。使用来自德国Pairfam调查的九次波的纵向数据，我们可以预测n的并集解散 = 3,650个同居并已婚的男女。与已婚者相比，同居者报告了更高水平的个性化关系实践。亲密关系是预测工会稳定性的关键因素。因此，个体在夫妻关系中对情绪满足感下降的适应力较低。自治和民主在经验上无法预测联盟的稳定，而不会超出它们与亲密关系之间的联系。同居和婚姻之间的差异微乎其微，而与同居者相比，更高的亲密关系可以使配偶受益，因为他们的工会稳定性更高。我们的研究有助于对个人社会中亲密关系的含义变化的后果进行分析性澄清，最终，