Joyner Kara, Manning Wendy, Bogle Ryan
Department of Sociology, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, 43403-0001, USA.
Demography. 2017 Dec;54(6):2351-2374. doi: 10.1007/s13524-017-0633-8.
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.
大多数关于成年伴侣关系稳定性的研究都集中在共同居住（同居或已婚）的结合形式上，并估算共同居住期间的解体率。考察共同居住结合形式的稳定性如何因性别构成而有所不同的研究通常发现，同性女性伴侣的解体率高于同性男性伴侣和异性伴侣。我们认为，同性女性伴侣较高的解体率是专注于共同居住结合形式所产生的一个副产品。我们使用来自全国青少年至成人健康纵向研究的数据，比较同性男性伴侣、同性女性伴侣和异性伴侣基于浪漫和性关系总时长的解体率。追踪年轻成年伴侣关系从形成之时起的稳定性的风险模型结果表明，男性伴侣的解体率大大高于女性伴侣和异性伴侣。基于仅限于共同居住期间的模型得出的结果证实了早期研究中那个与直觉相悖的发现，即女性伴侣共同居住结合形式的解体率最高。这项研究强调了对这些伴侣类型进行比较对于更好地理解制度和性别在当代伴侣关系稳定性中所起作用的重要性。
