结婚还是分手?流动青年同居者的关系转变研究

Marriage or Dissolution? Union Transitions Among Young Floating Cohabitants

未婚同居正在成为年轻人择偶过程的一部分,同居是否会走向婚姻,哪些因素会促进或阻碍同居走向婚姻,成为家庭行为研究的新议题。文章利用95位“90后”乡城流动青年同居者的回溯性和追踪性访谈资料,对同居向婚姻或是分手转变过程中的关键因素进行了探索性分析。研究发现,经济因素即男方家庭的婚姻支付能力对婚姻的形成仍然是最重要的;个体化进程和对婚姻情感基础的强调,使同居关系质量也成为关系转变的关键因素,尽管它对结婚和分手结果的影响强度是不同的;同居关系本身的一些特征也可能影响到同居结果,地域异质性是进入婚姻的一个重要障碍,而同居中的怀孕则会加速向婚姻的转变。研究结果有助于理解同居关系的转变,为分析当今年轻人的婚姻形成提供了新的解释因素。

Unmarried cohabitation is becoming part of the mate selection process for young people.Whether cohabitation leads to marriage and what factors facilitate or hinder cohabitation to marriage has become a new topic of family behavior study.Using retrospective and follow-up in-depth interviews data with“post-90s”rural migrant youth cohabitants(n=95),this study explores the key factors in the transition from cohabitation to marriage or breakup.The study finds that for rural migrant young cohabiting partners,economic factors,i.e.,the ability of the male partner’s family to pay for the marriage,remain the most important in the formation of the marriage;The process of individuation and the emphasis on the emotional basis of marriage have led to cohabitation relationship quality also being a key factor in union transformation,although it affects marriage and breakup outcomes with varying intensity;Some features of the cohabitation relationship itself may also affect cohabitation outcomes,with geographic heterogeneity being a significant barrier to entry into marriage and pregnancy in cohabitation accelerating the transition to marriage.The findings contribute to the understanding of the transformation of cohabitation relationships and provide new explanatory factors for the analysis of marriage formation among young people today.