New partnership after first divorce-an event history analysis

New or altered family forms and their changing roles in the individual lifecycle is one of the most important factors affecting modern demographic behaviour. In Hungary – like other developed countries – the rate of marriage has decreased, the rate of divorce has increased and cohabitation has spread. On the basis of the first wave of the panel survey carried out in 2001 in the HCSO Demographic Research Institute (Turning Points of the Life Course) on a country-wide representative sample (more than 16,000 people, aged 18–75) the author examines the new partnerships of people after marriage break-up. Using event history analysis, she analyses the factors influencing the formation of new partnerships and differences between the two sexes. The basic difference between the two sexes is that men form a new cohabiting unit earlier and with a higher frequency than women. The break-up of the parental family during childhood increases the chances of forming new partnerships in every case, while cohabitation before marriage increases chances only for women. Over the course of time, the chances of forming a new partnership decreases for both sexes. For women, one child under the age of 18 in the household is not a serious impediment to forming a new partnership. At the same time, the burden of having two or more children under the age of 18 is not a sufficiently strong enough incentive for remarrying or starting to cohabit. Having several children in the household decreases chances of remarrying if at least one of the children is younger than 7. For men, these decreased chances refer only to cases where the youngest of the children living with the man is older than 6. Being more highly educated increases men’s chances of finding a new partner, while it does the opposite for women.