It's about Time: The Interrelationship between Partnership Transitions, Residential Mobility and Housing Tenure

Hill Kulu, University of St Andrews
Julia Mikolai, University of St Andrews

Family life events, such as union formation and union dissolution, are closely linked to residential mobility and housing changes. Most previous studies have focused on the relationship between one family life event and residential changes. They have assumed that family life events influence residential mobility. We study the interrelationship between union formation, union dissolution, and residential mobility to gain a better understanding of how partnership and housing trajectories evolve and interact in the lives of individuals. We first investigate how the risk of a residential move changes over time since partnership changes. We then study how the risk of union formation (cohabitation or marriage) and union dissolution changes over time since a residential move. We disaggregate the results by the tenure type of destination housing. Using data from the British Household Panel Survey and the UKHLS Understanding Society study, we estimate competing risks multi-level event history models. Preliminary findings indicate that most women move to form a cohabiting union rather than to marry. In addition, marriage formation is mostly related to tenure changes, moves to homeownership. Among those who moved to homeownership, the risk of a cohabitation as well as the risk of a marriage is high. Separation leads to elevated residential mobility and moves to privately and socially rented dwellings.

Presented in Poster Session 2