WANTING A CHILD WITHOUT A FIRM COMMITMENT TO THE PARTNER - INTERPRETATIONS AND IMPLICATIONS OF A COMMON BEHAVIOR PATTERN AMONG NORWEGIAN COHABITANTS

Further knowledge of combined birth and marriage intentions among coha biting couples will improve our understanding of the nature of consens ual unions and be important from a policy perspective. According to No rwegian surveys from 1988 and 1996, about 1/3 of the births to cohabit ing couples are mistimed. Among the remainder, between 1/2 and 3/4 are to couples who at least have no intention to marry within the next co uple of years. The most radical estimate, based on the most recent sur vey, is that there are three equally large categories of births to coh abiting couples: mistimed births, intended births to couples planning marriage, and intended births to couples with no marriage plans whatev er. The 1996 survey also revealed that a clear majority of these coupl es who appear to want a child without planning marriage, explain this attitude partly by the less easy dissolution of a marriage. In other w ords, their consensual union is indeed considered different from marri age in terms of commitment and stability and they may have concerns ab out the quality of the relationship. There were weak indications that cohabitants with an intended birth in the absence of marriage plans we re less likely than others to consider a parental break-up to be very deleterious for the child.