Living apart together in Europe. A hidden family type from the mountains of Lapland to the shores of Naples

Inge Pasteels, Universiteit Antwerpen
Vicky Lyssens-Danneboom, Universiteit Antwerpen
Dimitri Mortelmans, Universiteit Antwerpen

In this paper, we explore the heterogeneity that characterizes LAT-partnerships across Europe. LAT-partnerships are heterogeneous in nature and their meaning varies substantially across the life course. For some, LAT is a rather short-lived experience ending by partners either terminating the relationship or transforming it into married or unmarried cohabitation within a few years. Others perceive LAT as a longstanding end in itself. Insight into differences between European countries regarding characteristics as age, educational level and employment of the partners involved can add new information about this family type as an “incomplete institution”. Also characteristics of the relationship itself such as duration, occurrence in the lifecourse (premarital or postmarital), are informative to describe simularities and differences across Europa concerning this kind of partnership. We use the wave 1 data of the Generations and Gender Programme (GGP) for Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania and Russia. With logistic regression models, we analyze the likelihood of being in a LAT-relationship in general and also the likelihood of this type of relationship as a choice instead of being single on the one hand or being in a cohabiting union on the other hand in a multivariate way.