Forming couple relationships
Adolescents' aspirations and young adults' actualities
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Abstract
The number of people living without a partner has increased substantially over the last few decades. Are men and women shirking the idea of marriage and long-term relationships, or are they having difficulties in forming a satisfying couple relationship? This paper uses two sources of data to assess the aspirations of boys and girls about forming a long-term relationship or getting married: the Australian Temperament Project; and wave 2 of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey.
The number of people living without a partner has increased substantially over the last few decades. Are men and women shirking the idea of marriage and long-term relationships, or are they having difficulties in forming a satisfying couple relationship? This paper uses two sources of data to assess the aspirations of boys and girls about forming a long-term relationship or getting married: the Australian Temperament Project; and wave 2 of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey.