We are seeking comments on our draft questionnaire for couples Living Apart Together (LATS).
Couples who live apart comprise a significant minority of the UK population, but often very limited data is available on both parts of the couple to understand their circumstances and relationship in a holistic way. To date Understanding Society has asked a few questions of participants who have a steady relationship with someone living outside of their household, which has enabled users to provide valuable insights on this group (Coulter and Hu 2017). However, the data are limited as we only collect cross-sectional information on such relationships and do not have data from the participant’s significant other.
We have therefore undertaken several initiatives to improve our data in this field:
- Improved longitudinal data collection – Experiments in Innovation Panels 13 and 14 have explored the feasibility of asking for the significant other’s name, and from wave 14 we will ask whether the significant other is the same as in the last wave so they can be linked across waves.
- Understanding relationship trajectories – from Wave 14 we ask whether non-coresident couples have previously lived together.
- Parents in LAT relationships – a sizeable proportion of this group are parents living apart and international literature has identified that having children increases the probability of being in a LAT relationship (De Jong Gierveld & Mert 2013) so from Wave 14 we will include questions about any children non-coresident couples have together and from previous relationships.
We would welcome suggestions for other content we could develop to include in future main questionnaires about LAT relationships and partners.
Another innovative idea we wish to try is to interview both partners in the couple (i.e. the Understanding Society participant and their non-sample/non-coresident significant other). Successfully collecting data from both partners may contribute to understanding more about the key research questions arising in the literature such as:
- Who are those in LAT relationships?
- Are LAT relationships an individual choice or practical response to life course constraints/circumstances and the association of this with age?
- How do people experience and feel about their LAT relationship?
- How do relative resources, (dis)agreement of norms, values, preferences, intentions and attitudes interact to influence current LAT and future cohabitation (Coulter and Hu 2017)?
- How do LAT relationships function and do they provide financial, practical and emotional support (Duncan et al 2015)?
- How do societal constraints and social policies influence LAT relationships (UNECE 2011)?
Furthermore, collecting information about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on these relationships can provide an insight into the impact of law and policies on this group, which some have argued were overlooked by early Covid measures in the UK (Wagner 2020).
In order to investigate the feasibility of interviewing both partners we are carrying out an experiment over several waves of the Innovation Panel (IP). In IP13 we asked participants in LAT relationships to give us the contact details of their partner (forthcoming, IP13 Working Paper 2021). Drawing on the results of this, we adapted the way we asked for contact details in IP14, using two approaches via the questionnaire and by a separate letter. We will receive these data from the fieldwork agency in November 2021 and identify further lessons about how to improve requesting such contact details in the future.
Meanwhile, we wish to trial collecting data from the non-sample/non-coresident partner to be appended to our IP13/IP14 data. We have prioritised topics according to those which offer the most research potential in contributing to existing questions raised in the literature.
We would welcome comments on the draft questions and/or suggestions for other content that would be valuable to ask of both LAT partners. You can download the draft questionnaire here.
What are we doing?
In IP13 we had 175 respondents in a LAT relationship and were provided with useable contact details for 43 significant others. For those who didn’t provide contact details in IP13, we asked half of the sample again in IP14 and will send a letter to the other half in January 2022 asking for contact details.
In January 2022 a 15 minute web survey will be fielded to participants from Innovation Panels 13 and 14 in a continuing non-coresident relationship and their partners (those for whom we have contact details from IP13 (2019-20) and IP14 (2020-21).
The aims of the survey are to:
- Trial approaching ‘significant others’ to participate in data collection;
- Gather comprehensive information of LAT couples to enhance information collected on existing sample members’ lives;
- Test new content for LAT relationships to inform future waves.
Participants will be offered a £5 thank you for completing the survey.
What do we hope to achieve?
Drawing on the literature and other surveys of couples living apart together (the Generations and Gender Survey and studies by NatCen and University of Birkbeck) key information we propose capturing in the survey are:
- Characteristics of couples living apart
- Age, gender, ethnicity, religion, national identity, country of birth, citizenship, health and education level directly asked of significant other (rather than partner reports)
- Information on living arrangements, housing status, employment status and benefit eligibility.
- Legal marital status and brief marital and cohabitation histories.
- Family dynamics – existence of mutual children and household composition.
- Whether LAT through choice or circumstance (financial or situational)
- Relationship satisfaction and quality comparable to that asked in the main survey on within-household partner relationships.
- Sharing of resources and provision of practical and emotional support.
- Gender attitudes
- Future intentions – e.g. intention to move, live together, marry.
- Include those who commute between households as well as maintain two separate households (UNECE 2011).
We also wish to obtain participant feedback relating to:
- The nature and appropriateness of the questions;
- Willingness to participate in possible future studies;
- Given timeliness and policy relevance, capture the impact, if any, of the covid19 pandemic on their relationship.
What happens after?
The survey will be fielded in January 2022. Data will be available later in the year and, if there is sufficient data, it will be appended to sample member data from Innovation Panel 13 and 14 with the IP14 deposit.
Drawing on this consultation and data collected in survey, in 2022 we will evaluate evidence to decide whether to ask contact details of LAT partners in the main survey and, irrespective of this, evaluate introducing the new content questions to mainstage.
We will also implement learning to inform how we might approach significant others of other sample members such as non-cohabiting co-parents and carers.
What do we want from this consultation?
We would be keen to understand the sorts of research questions this survey may help you to answer, as well as your suggestions for content to be included in the survey of LAT couples and comments on proposed ideas listed above and the main survey from Wave 15 (2022-23).
Please contact Kelly Reeve ksreev@essex.ac.uk to respond to the consultation or for further information. Please note the consultation closes on 25 November 2021.
References
Coulter, R., & Hu, W. (2017). Coulter R, Hu Y. Living Apart Together and Cohabitation Intentions in Great Britain. Journal of Family Issues. 2017;38(12):1701-1729. doi:10.1177/0192513X15619461
De Jong Gierveld, J. & Merz, e. (2013). Parents’ Partnership Decision Making After Divorce or Widowhood: The Role of (Step) Children. Journal of Marriage and Family, 75(5), 1098-113. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12061
Duncan, S., Phillips, M., Carter, J., Roseneil, S., & Stoilova, M. (2014). Practices and perceptions of living apart together. Family Science, 5, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1080/19424620.2014.927382
Duncan, S. (2015). Women’s agency in living apart together: Constraint, strategy and vulnerability. Sociological Review, 63, 589-607. doi:10.1111/1467-954X.12184
United Nations Economic Council for Europe. (2011). Measurement of different emerging forms of households and families. https://unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/stats/publications/Families_and_Households_FINAL.pdf
Wagner, A. [@AdamWagner1]. (2020, February 7). Well, it’s been quite a ride (short, non-comprehensive thread on illegal dating and sex 2020-21) [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/AdamWagner1/status/1358463275063779329