Family with and without marriage licence
What do (future) parents in Germany know about the legal consequences of marriage, divorce or separation?
Findings from a quantitative and qualitative survey of parents and people who want to have children
The study ‘Family with and without a marriage licence’ was funded by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ).
The aim of the study was to gather information on why parents and people who want to have children decide in favour of or against marriage, whether they have made agreements in the event of separation or divorce, how well they know about legal regulations relating to marriage and non-marital cohabitation, how they rate these regulations and where they obtain information about them. The results focus on people with child(ren) and are supplemented by the statements of those who wish to have children.
The study is based on a two-stage research approach:
- Qualitative interviews: Individual and couple interviews with 40 people who (want to) share responsibility for a child in order to gain deeper insights into their personal experiences and opinions. The sample consisted of eight couples still without a child or pregnant/planning to have a child, eight couples with a child together, two patchwork couples and four single parents.
- Representative survey: Based on this, a quantitative survey was conducted with 1,513 parents aged between 18 and 49 (including single parents and parents living in a household with non-biological children) and 1,512 people aged between 18 and 49 without children of their own but with a desire to have children. In addition to the characteristic with or without child(ren), people with different attitudes towards marriage as well as different socio-demographic groups were compared with each other.