Repartnering after Union Dissolution. A Study of Same-Sex and Different-Sex Couples in Austria.

Melanie Wagner, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna Institute of Demography
Anna Karmann , University of Vienna, Department of Sociology
Caroline Berghammer, Vienna Institute of Demography, Austrian Academy of Sciences
Valeria Bordone, University of Vienna

Repartnering after the dissolution of a romantic union has become common in most Western societies. However, due to data constraints, research into repartnering has mainly focused on opposite-sex couples, with little attention given to same-sex partnerships. In this paper, we will study the prevalence and speed of repartnering in Austria for which population register data have been made available for scientific use in 2022. Guided by marital search theory, we use event-history analysis to study repartnering after dissolution of marriage and registered partnerships for same and different-sex couples, stratifying our sample by gender, age, educational level, and the presence of children. We further investigate how repartnering affects people's standard of living, again differentiating by socio-economic sub-groups. Preliminary results (on different-sex couples only) indicate that in Austria, similarly to other Western countries, repartnering happens more frequently and earlier among men and younger persons as compared to women and people separating later in life. For women, repartnering after separation tends to compensate economic losses resulting from union dissolution. This study makes three main contributions to the literature. First, it provides new evidence for Austria using newly available register data. Second, it includes same-sex couples—a group often neglected in previous research due to limited data availability. Third, it offers a nuanced picture of repartnering in Austria, examining differences across gender, age, education, and family type. Results will advance our understanding of how socio-economic characteristics shape repartnering dynamics and their economic consequences after union dissolution for same-sex and different-sex couples.

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 Presented in Session 72. LGBTQIA+ Life Course Transitions and Trajectories