Non-random selection of reproductive partners in the human population, i.e. assortative mating, has been a stable occurrence for decades and across societies, including the Czech Republic. Social sciences have paid primary attention to homogamy, marriage between similar partners, also due to its potential impact on society. High levels of homogamy in a society may imply high closedness of the different groups, prevent social mobility, suggest racial tensions, or lead to higher inequality. Three factors are deemed as responsible for homogamy. Structural factors are represented by the partners’ physical closeness as they meet, for example, at school or other institutions. Second, there are individual factors, namely one’s personal preferences for a relationship with someone similar to one. Finally, social factors represent the influence of social groups as they have their own stake in preserving group cohesion through marriage between their members. However, evidence of assortative mating and its mechanisms mostly comes from attitudinal data or questionnaire surveys, which make it difficult to differ between individual and structural factors, among others. In this review article, I focus on the potential of data from online dating sites to help us better understand assortative mating. Is the Internet changing the ways people meet? How does assortative mating work in the online environment and what can it tell us about the mating process in general? The paper starts by presenting the main theories of assortative mating and adding information on the specifics of the online environment. There are basically two contradictory expectations of the effect of the Internet on the mating process. The first group assumes that the easy access to thousands of potential partners across all sociodemographic groups an online dating service provides, plus the absence of direct influence of intermediaries such as community members, will lead to higher diversity of the ensuing marriages. In short, the level of assortative mating will decrease. The opposite expectation is based on the assumption that people generally prefer contact with similar partners and online dating services help them more effectively filter mates by preferred criteria, thus avoiding contact with people who do not fit their expectations. As a result, assortative mating will grow. The theory section is followed by a review of contemporary international research of online dating services with regard to assortative mating. I conclude the detailed review by arguing that the human preference for similar partners occurs in the online environment as well, and therefore, assortative mating likely cannot be explained by structural factors only. Moreover, all points to the fact that data from real-life user interaction in online dating services can importantly widen our knowledge of assortative mating., Markéta Šetinová., and Obsahuje bibliografické odkazy
One of the most important factors contributing to the increasing diversity of family trajectories is the growing prevalence of unmarried cohabitation and extramarital births. Using data from the ‘Social and Economic Conditions of Motherhood’ survey (SEPM) from 2006, this paper explores the factors influencing the probability that an unmarried mother will marry after childbirth. The findings show that for one ‑third of unmarried mothers in the Czech Republic unmarried parenthood is the first phase in the family life ‑course leading to marriage rather than long term family arrangement. Unmarried mothers living in unmarried cohabitation, women with higher education, and women who have postponed marriage due to pregnancy have a higher probability of making the transition to marriage. The analysis does not confirm that the uncertainty of the relationship and a partner’s negative attitudes towards marriage at the time of childbirth have negative effects on the transition to marriage after childbirth., Jana Chaloupková., 3 tabulky, 2 grafy, Poznámky na str. 39 (2), Biografická poznámka o autorce článku na str. 39, Obsahuje bibliografii, and Resumé o klíčová slova anglicky na str. 30
This study analyses the first partnerships of women and men in the Czech Republic and focuses on a comparison of family behaviour before and after the politically and socially important watershed of 1989. The authors investigate the type of first partnership (cohabitation versus marriage) and its timing. It can be assumed that significant changes in partnership behaviour exhibit a different pattern according to educational group, and moreover that differences in the timing and type of first partnership might also be expected from the point of view of gender. Given the increasing proportion of children born outside wedlock, attention is devoted to the impact of pregnancy and childbirth on partnership strategies. The data used in the paper are taken from the ‘Generations and Gender Survey’ carried out in the Czech Republic in 2008. The retrospective character of these data provides information on partnership careers in the context of other significant life events., Anna Šťastná, Jana Paloncyová., Rubrika: Stati, 1 tabulka, 1 schéma, 5 grafů, Poznámky na str. 29 (4), Biografické poznámky o autorkách článku na str. 15, Obsahuje bibliografii, and Resumé o klíčová slova anglicky na str. 16
Data on divorces are gathered by the Czech Statistical Office and thus widely accessible and well known, but much less information is available about the stability of unmarried cohabitations. This paper focuses on the differences between marriage and unmarried cohabitations in terms of their stability. The authors study the impact of various factors on the stability of marriages and unmarried cohabitations taking into account the different socio -demographic indicators. To explain this phenomenon they use various theoretical approaches emphasizing different factors of partnership instability (from socializing factors to premarital cohabitation, values, education and gender, to factors based on the theory of rational choice). The analysis identified factors that operate in the same manner within both marriages and unmarried cohabitations (e.g. children in the partnership, experience with the previous partnership break-ups) as well as factors that play a different role in the stability of marriages and unmarried cohabitations (e.g. education, duration of partnership, generation). The paper is based on quantitative data from the survey ‘Life-course 2010’, which included 4010 respondents. The authors used the event history approach in their analysis which enabled them to track the dependences of the variables in time., Marta Vohlídalová, Hana Maříková., 1 graf, 1 tabulka, Poznámky na str. 14-15 (14), Biografické poznámky o autorkách článku na str. 15, Obsahuje bibliografii, and Resumé o klíčová slova anglicky na str. 3
istorically speaking divorce is a relatively recent phenomenon. Divorce has become more important over the last century and has undoubtedly had an impact on the social reproduction strategies typically linked to marriage. In this paper use is made of the concept of Assortative Mating to explore if initial and subsequent marriage partner choices differ on the basis of heterogamy. This research question is formulated in terms of two contrasting hypotheses: (1) the learning and (2) the marriage market hypotheses (Gelissen 2004). These two perspectives form the basis of the theoretical framework used in the empirical analyses reported. Here logistic and linear regression and log-linear modelling techniques are used. The data used to test the learning and marriage market hypotheses contains information on all officially recorded marriages in the Czech Republic over a ten year period (1994-2004) gathered by the Czech Statistical Office. The results presented reveal that divorce changes the socially reproductive aspects of marriage choice strategies, and these changes vary systematically on the basis of gender. Whereas first and subsequent marriage choices are very similar for men, repeated marriage choices for women are on the whole more diverse. A number of explanations explaining this gender based difference are presented. These explanations centre on dissimilarities in the context of repeated choices for men and women., Petr Fučík., 5 grafů, 2 tabulky, Obsahuje bibliografii, and Anglické resumé