Socio-Economic Factors and Family Size as Determinants of Marital Dissolution in Italy

• Published in: European sociological review 1992-05, Vol.8 (1), p.71-91
• Main Author: de Rose, Alessandra
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age; Attitude; Behavior; Birth Rate; Children; Cohabitation; Demography; Developed Countries; Divorce; Divorce rates; Economics; Educational Status; Employment; Europe; Family Size; Fertility; Geographic regions; Geography; Italy; Marriage; Parity; Population; Population Dynamics; Psychology; Religious Beliefs; Residence Characteristics; Social Class; Socioeconomic Factors; Socioeconomics; Sociology; Sociology of the family. Age groups; Woman social status. Women's emancipation; Working women
• ISSN: 0266-7215; 1468-2672

This study was carried out to investigate how and when union dissolution appears in the life cycle of an Italian woman through a legal or de-facto separation. Among Western European countries Italy stands out in terms of demographic behaviour. Italian society is in an advanced stage of demographic development regarding mortality and reproductive behaviour, but still shows traditional conjugal models and attitudes towards any form of cohabitation other than marriage and towards divorce. However, though at macro-level, marriage dissolution is still considered a secondary phenomenon in the context of Italian conjugal habits, increasing interest in the analysis of individual strategies concerning family building and maintenance leads to giving divorce more attention as a step in the individual life course. The final aim of this project is to analyse the characteristics of persons experiencing this event and to individuate any possible highest-risk life course and the socio-economic context in which it developed. Women most exposed to the risk of marital disruption seem to be those who married very young, who have had no more than one child, who are better educated, who have full-time jobs and who reside in large towns in the north-west of Italy. In addition, a woman who cohabits with her partner before marrying him is more likely to separate than a woman entering marriage directly.