title: The relationship between work history and partnership formation in cohorts of British men born in 1958 and 1970.
abstract: This study investigated the relationship between work history and partnership formation for British men. Two questions were asked: (i) Do instabilities in young men's careers lead to a higher probability of entering into cohabitation and, in turn, to a postponement of first marriage? (ii) Are there cohort differences in the effects of men's careers on their partnership decisions? The analyses were based on data from two birth-cohort studies for men born in 1958 and 1970. The results suggest that highly unstable occupational careers make it very likely that young men's first partnership is a cohabitation rather than a marriage. Further, having an unstable occupational career early in working life is a strong impediment to transforming cohabitation into marriage. Finally, there is no evidence of a weakening between cohorts of the effects of men's work careers on their partnership decisions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Policy and Intervention and Fellow of Nufffied College, University of Oxford, Wellington Square, Oxford, United Kingdom. erzsebet.bukodi@nuffield.ox.ac.uk
authors.forename: Erzsébet
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bukodi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002322:Career Mobility; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004739:England; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009790:Occupations; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012456:Salaries and Fringe Benefits / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012747:Sexual Partners; D016019:Survival Analysis; D006113:United Kingdom; D014937:Work / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult