Overview
Partner relationships, residential relocations and housing are crucial to people's well-being and are known to be connected with each other. Many aspects of this connection, however, have remained under-researched or unexplored thus far: living-apart-together besides co-residential partnerships, long-term effects, mutual causality, full trajectories rather than one-at-a-time events, and the impact of the contextual background. The PartnerLife project addresses the following research question: How do partner trajectories and residential trajectories develop in relation to each other in people's life courses, and how are these trajectories and the interactions between them related to the contextual backgrounds of Germany, the UK and the Netherlands?
We will derive and test hypotheses from various micro-level theories, including rational-choice theory and bargaining models, and also develop hypotheses on the macro-level impact of welfare regimes and housing markets. Large-scale longitudinal datasets are used for the three countries. We analyze these using a variety of standard and advanced longitudinal methods, including multilevel event history analysis, sequence analysis and dyadic models. Our results will enhance the scientific insight into partner trajectories and residential trajectories in the life courses of linked individuals.
PartnerLife is a collaborative project between the University of Groningen (the Netherlands), the University of Cologne (Germany), and the University of St Andrews (United Kingdom).
Find out more on the project website.
Publications & Activities
Make Up or Break Up? Partnership Transitions among Young Adults in England and Wales
Advances in Life Course Research (2022). 52
Authors: Pelikh A, Mikolai J, Kulu H,
Family life transitions, residential relocations, and housing in the life course: Current research and opportunities for future work: Introduction to the Special Collection on “Separation, Divorce, and Residential Mobility in a Comparative Perspectiv
Demographic Research (2020). 43 35-58
Authors: Mikolai J, Kulu H, Mulder C,
Mikolai J, Kulu H, (2020) Chapter 15 - Family Changes, Housing Transitions, and Residential Mobility in Handbook on Demographic Change and the Lifecourse
Separation, Divorce, and Residential Mobility in a Comparative Perspective
Demographic Research (2020). 27
Authors: Mikolai J, Kulu H, Mulder C,
Separation and Elevated Residential Mobility: A Cross-Country Comparison
European Journal of Population (2020). 37 121-150
Authors: Kulu H, Mikolai J, Thomas M, Vidal S, Schnor C, Willaert D, Visser F, Mulder C,
Remain, leave, or return? Mothers' location continuity after separation in Belgium
Demographic Research (2020). 42 (9) 245-292
Authors: Mikolai J, Schnor C,
Separation, divorce, and housing tenure : a cross-country comparison
Demographic Research (2019). 41 (39) 1131-1146
Authors: Mikolai J, Kulu H, Vidal S, Van-der-Wiel R, Mulder C,
Union dissolution and housing trajectories in Britain
Demographic Research (2019). 41 (7) 161-196
Authors: Mikolai J, Kulu H,
Getting back on the Housing Ladder? Separation and homeownership in Britain and Germany
Divorce Conference 2019 (2019). (Florence, Italy)
Authors: Kulu H, Mikolai J, Vidal S,
Getting back on the Housing Ladder? Separation and homeownership in Britain and Germany
BSPS (2019). (Cardiff)
Authors: Kulu H, Mikolai J, Vidal S,
Divorce, Separation and Housing Changes: A Multiprocess Analysis of Longitudinal Data from England and Wales
Demography (2018). 55 (1) 83-106
Authors: Mikolai J, Kulu H,
Short- and long-term effects of divorce and separation on housing tenure in England and Wales
Population Studies (2018). 72 (1) 17-39
Authors: Mikolai J, Kulu H,
It's About Time: The Interrelationship Between Partnership Transitions, Residential Mobility, and Housing Tenure
PAA Annual Conference 2018 (2018). (Sheraton Denver Downtown)
Authors: Mikolai J, Kulu H,
Union Dissolution and Housing Tenure Trajectories in Britain
PAA Annual Conference 2018 (2018). (Sheraton Denver Downtown)
Authors: Mikolai J, Kulu H,
Make up or Break up? Partnership Experiences of Young Adults Born between 1974 and 1991 in England and Wales
European Population Conference 2018 (2018). (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
Authors: Pelikh A, Kulu H, Mikolai J,
It's about Time: The Interrelationship between Partnership Transitions, Residential Mobility and Housing Tenure
European Population Conference 2018 (2018). (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
Authors: Mikolai J, Kulu H,
Divorce and housing tenure: A cross‐country comparison
British Society for Population Studies (2017). (Liverpool, UK)
Authors: Kulu H, Mikolai J, Vidal S, Mulder C,
Union dissolution and housing tenure trajectories in England, Wales, and Scotland - Opportunities and challenges of using sequence analysis on panel data
British Society for Population Studies (2017). (Liverpool, UK)
Authors: Mikolai J, Kulu H,
Union dissolution and housing tenure trajectories in Britain
RGS-IBG Annual International Conference 2017 (2017). (London, UK)
Authors: Mikolai J, Kulu H,
Divorce and housing tenure: A cross-country comparison
PartnerLife conference (2017). (University of Cologne, Germany)
Authors: Kulu H, Mikolai J, Vidal S, Mulder C,
Union dissolution and housing tenure trajectories in Britain
PartnerLife conference (2017). (University of Cologne, Germany)
Authors: Mikolai J, Kulu H,
Separation and housing trajectories in Britain: Opportunities and challenges of using sequence analysis on panel data
Understanding Society Scientific Conference 2017 (2017). (University of Essex, UK)
Authors: Mikolai J, Kulu H,
Make up or break up? Union histories of young adults in England and Wales
Annual meeting of the Population Association of America 2017 (2017). (Chicago, Illinois)
Authors: Pelikh A, Kulu H, Mikolai J,
Separation and spatial mobility: A cross-national comparison
Separation and spatial mobility: A cross-national comparison (2017). (Annual meeting of the Population Association of America 2017)
Authors: Kulu H, Mikolai J, Thomas M, Vidal S, Schnor C, Willaert D, Visser F, Mulder C,
Short- and long-term effects of separation on housing tenure in England and Wales
Annual meeting of the Population Association of America 2017 (2017). (Chicago, Illinois)
Authors: Mikolai J, Kulu H,
Short- and long-term effects of separation on housing
International Research and Policy Symposium on Family Changes and Housing Transitions in the Life Course (2017). (University of St Andrews)
Authors: Kulu H, Mikolai J,
Media
Should we move in together? Examining partnership transitions among young adults in England and Wales Population Europe. 2022
Blog by Julia Mikolai: Should we move in together? Examining partnership transitions among young adults in England and Wales on Population Europe website. Based on Pelikh, A., J. Mikolai, and H. Kulu. (2022). Make up or break up? Partnership transitions among young adults in England and Wales. Advances in Life Course Research, 52, 100475. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.alcr.2022.100475
Why millennials aren't moving in together as a trial marriage BBC Worklife. 2022
News article referring to research by Pelikh A, Mikolai J, Kulu H “Make Up or Break Up? Partnership Transitions among Young Adults in England and Wales”, Advances in Life Course Research.
People born in 80s not likely to marry their first cohabiting partner Mirage News. 2022
News article referring to research by Pelikh A, Mikolai J, Kulu H “Make Up or Break Up? Partnership Transitions among Young Adults in England and Wales”, Advances in Life Course Research.
CPC Seminar: 'Union dissolution, residential mobility and housing in Britain' | Julia Mikolai Youtube. 2018
Julia Mikolai is a Research Fellow at the University of St Andrews. She is currently working on the PartnerLife project (https://partnerlifeproject.org/), a comparative project which explores the interrelationships between partner relationships, residential relocations, and housing in the life course in the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands. Julia holds a PhD in social statistics and demography from the University of Southampton. Her PhD research investigated the intersection of partnership experiences and the transition to motherhood in 16 European countries and the United States using multi-state event history models. Julia's background is in sociology and demography; she studied at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, at Utrecht University, and at the European Doctoral School of Demography.
Partner relationships, residential relocations and housing are crucial to people's well-being and are known to be connected with each other. However, many aspects of this connection have remained under-researched. In this presentation, Julia aims to fill some of these knowledge gaps by showcasing findings from the PartnerLife project. For example, she shows that separation leads to elevated mobility levels and that the risk of a move remains high even several years after separation in England and Wales. Additionally, she examines housing tenure trajectories of separated men and women in Britain applying sequence analysis to data from the British Household Panel Survey.
