Individual Values as a Factor of Relationship Stability in Europe: A GGS Study

Dmitry Zakotyansky, Universite catholique de Louvain (UCL)

In this study the author uses GGS waves 1 and 2 panel data on 6 countries to analyze the impact of personal values and marital and gender attitudes from the GGS wave 1 on person's relationship status in the GGS wave 2: with the same partner or with another one\no partner. Selected subsample consists of childless non-ever-married respondents at age 40 or younger who do have a partner but with whom they do not live in a household. A partnership status of these persons is further examined in the wave 2 data. Possible changes are recoded in two categories: the same partner (1) or another partner\no partner (2). Then author applies a logistic regression gender attitudes and values as independent factors, controlling for basic socio-demographic factors. The tested hypothesis proposes that persons with more traditional (as opposed to egalitarian) ideal of the family have higher chances of losing their partner and a combination of traditional perception of the family along with higher importance of personal (economic) independence leads to the highest chances of losing the partner in comparison to other combinations of these values. Preliminary results indicate that there is some evidence in support of this hypothesis.

Presented in Poster Session 2