Partnership Formation in Young and Older Age

Abstract

This article examines the prevalence of partnership formation at different life stages and analyses whether the determinants of partnership formation change over the life course. Data were obtained from the German Socio-Economic Panel for the years 1992 to 2014. Event history analyses were used to examine 13,871 periods of being single, of which 8,551 ended with the beginning of an intimate relationship. The results show that the formation of intimate relationships becomes increasingly unlikely after the fourth decade of life onward, particularly for women. At the same time, several predictors of partnership formation vary substantially with age. Economic resources accelerate partnership formation particularly in midlife, whereas good health accelerates partnership formation only in later years. These results remain similar when the transition into cohabitation is examined.