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Gender and the Stability of Same-Sex and Different-Sex Relationships Among Young Adults

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Demography

Abstract

Most research on the stability of adult relationships has focused on coresidential (cohabiting or married) unions and estimates rates of dissolution for the period of coresidence. Studies examining how the stability of coresidential unions differs by sex composition have typically found that same-sex female couples have higher rates of dissolution than same-sex male couples and different-sex couples. We argue that the more elevated rates of dissolution for same-sex female couples are a by-product of the focus on coresidential unions. We use data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health to compare rates of dissolution based on the total duration of romantic and sexual relationships for same-sex male couples, same-sex female couples, and different-sex couples. Results from hazard models that track the stability of young adult relationships from the time they are formed demonstrate that male couples have substantially higher dissolution rates than female couples and different-sex couples. Results based on models restricted to the period of coresidence corroborate the counterintuitive finding from earlier studies that female couples have the highest rates of dissolving coresidential unions. This study underlines the importance of comparisons between these couple types for a better understanding of the role that institutions and gender play in the stability of contemporary relationships.

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Notes

  1. The multivariate left-truncated hazard models in these recent U.S. studies do not specify interactions between the covariates and time. In the case of HCMST, the risk period extends several decades (e.g., Rosenfeld 2014). We suspect that differences between same-sex and different-sex couples would be larger in models that begin exposure to the risk of dissolution at the time of relationship formation and include a shorter risk period (e.g., the first seven years) because the same-sex couples at risk of dissolution would be relatively less select.

  2. It was rare for respondents, including males with same-sex partners, to have more than one current partner at the fourth wave. In such cases (roughly 5 % of the entire sample), Add Health administered a set of rules for choosing the focal partner.

  3. Respondents who indicated their relationship was not current and reported that their marriage ended with the death of a spouse were treated as censored.

  4. We extended the models to cover the entire period of risk (not shown), not just the first seven years. The results were generally similar regardless of whether we censored relationship dissolution at seven years.

  5. The models control for age at the time of interview rather than age when the relationship began. In this sample of most recent relationships, age when the relationship began is a proxy indicator of duration.

  6. We also investigated whether male and female couples had an adopted child by examining the household roster. This was an extremely rare event for these couples.

  7. Men were more likely than women to have consistent reports of sexual orientation: 93 % of men in same-sex relationships and 92 % of men in different-sex relationships were consistent, compared with 78 % of women in same-sex relationships and 78 % of women in different-sex relationships. We suspect the elevated rates of inconsistency for women are partly a reflection of their greater sexual fluidity (Savin-Williams et al. 2012).

  8. We constrain differences between same-sex and different-sex couples in hazard rates to be proportional. We failed to find any evidence that their rates were not proportional.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported in part by the Center for Family and Demographic Research, Bowling Green State University, which has core funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P2CHD050959). We appreciate the insightful comments that Jenifer Bratter provided on an early draft of this article presented at the 2012 annual meeting of the Population Association of America. We also thank Barbara Prince for editorial suggestions. This research uses data from Add Health, a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by Grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 23 federal agencies and foundations. Special acknowledgment is due to Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Information on how to obtain the Add Health data files is available on the Add Health website (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth). No direct support was received from Grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis.

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  1. Department of Sociology, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, 43403-0001, USA

    Kara Joyner, Wendy Manning & Ryan Bogle

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  1. Kara Joyner
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Correspondence to Kara Joyner.

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Joyner, K., Manning, W. & Bogle, R. Gender and the Stability of Same-Sex and Different-Sex Relationships Among Young Adults. Demography 54, 2351–2374 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13524-017-0633-8

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