Value selection and value adaptation during the partnership formation process (LAT, cohabitation, marriage) – France and Hungary

Kapitány Balázs, Hungarian Demographic Research Institute

In an earlier study (Kapitány 2012) using a Hungarian longitudinal dataset we tried to find relationships between people entering in LAT partnerships and their values about families, partnerships, individualism. By investigating these relationships we used the concept of selection/ adaptation (Lesthaeghe-Moors 2002, Lesthaeghe Surkyn 2004) as a theoretical framework concerning changing values during the life-course. The results suggest that people with more individualized family values don’t choose LAT partnerships with more chance, while people living in a LAT partnership become more individualistic in family values. With other words: In Hungary in the case of LAT we could verify the selection-effect only in some cases, while the value-adaptation of those person living in LATs could be observed more often. In our current presentation we will extend the longitudinal empirical testing of the existence of value based selection and/or event-based adaptation processes for an other country (France), and for other types of partnership formations (cohabitation, marriage) too. We hope that with these modifications we will get closer to the original hypothesis of Lesthaeghe. This empirical work may help in an indirect way in the process of verification and modification of the Theory of the Second Demographic Transition.