Same-sex partner selection in Germany - extent, development and social conditions
Project description
The project, funded by the DFG from 2015 to 2019 and continued since then, deals with same-sex partnerships in Germany. In recent years, their social visibility and their social and legal recognition have increased considerably, and same-sex partnerships are now even included in official statistics. Nevertheless, they have rarely been the subject of social science research to date. The first studies on the prevalence and social structure of same-sex partnerships are mainly available for the USA, while even basic empirical information is lacking for Germany. This project contributes to the development of a new field of research. For the first time in Germany, the prevalence and development of same-sex partnerships is described both over time and in the cohort sequence. In addition, the emergence of same-sex partnerships is examined. The question here is which individual and social conditions contribute to the spread of same-sex partnerships. Last but not least, the choice of partners in same-sex relationships is examined. Data from various microcensus surveys are used and made available for the empirical analyses. Although the microcensus is only partially suitable for answering the above questions, it is the only representative data source in Germany that includes a sufficient number of same-sex relationships.
Project results
The project deals with the prevalence and social structure of same-sex partnerships in Germany and the changes that have occurred since the beginning of the 1970s. The microcensus serves as the data basis, in which same-sex partnerships have only been recorded since 1996, but can be estimated for the years before. As the methodological analyses show, the recording of same-sex partnerships in the microcensus leads to an underestimation. Since it is a sensitive topic, not all respondents want to state that they live with a same-sex partner and therefore provide no information or false information. On the other hand, there is an overestimation when estimating same-sex partnerships. However, for the more distant years, the estimate allows at least an upper limit of the prevalence of same-sex partnerships to be determined. Same-sex partnerships are a rare form of partnership living. No more than 1% of all partnerships with a shared household are same-sex. In view of the prevalence of homosexuality, estimated at several percent of the adult population, this may come as a surprise. A plausible explanation for this is that homosexuals are less likely to live in a relationship than heterosexuals, and that same-sex couples are less likely to live in a shared household than opposite-sex couples, as additional analyses of social science survey data show. Over time, there is a continuous increase in same-sex partnerships, which is slightly more pronounced among men than among women. As the differentiated consideration shows, this is an increase across the cohorts. The younger cohorts are more often in same-sex relationships than the older cohorts over the entire life course. This increase reflects a change in behaviour, and not just a change in the willingness to report a same-sex relationship in the microcensus. The patterns of same-sex partner selection are also the subject of the study. Just as in opposite-sex partnerships, there is also a tendency for same-sex partners to resemble each other in terms of age and education. However, this similarity is less pronounced than in opposite-sex partnerships, especially in same-sex partnerships between men. Over time, this changes only slightly.
Publications
Bohr, Jeanette; Lengerer, Andrea (2024): Partnership Dynamics of LGB People and Heterosexuals. Patterns of First Partnership Formation and First Cohabitation. In: European Journal of Population, 40, xx-xx. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10680-024-09697-4
Lengerer, Andrea; Schroedter, Julia H. (2022): Patterns and Trends of Same-Sex Partner Choice in Germany. In: Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 53, S. 161-188. https://doi.org/10.3138/jcfs.53.2.020
Lengerer, Andrea (2022): Assessing the Quality of Same-Sex Partnership Reports in the German Microcensus. GESIS Papers 2022/01. https://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/handle/document/77343
Lengerer, Andrea; Bohr, Jeanette (2019): Gleichgeschlechtliche Partnerschaften in Deutschland. Verbreitung, Entwicklung und soziale Unterschiede. In: Informations¬dienst Soziale Indikatoren, 62, S. 7-12. https://doi.org/10.15464/isi.62.2019.7-12
Lengerer, Andrea; Bohr, Jeanette (2019): Gibt es eine Zunahme gleichgeschlechtlicher Partnerschaften in Deutschland? Theoretische Überlegungen und empirische Befunde. In: Zeitschrift für Soziologie, 48, S. 136-157. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/zfsoz-2019-0010
Lengerer, Andrea (2019): Mikrozensus Tools: Identifikation verschieden- und gleichgeschlechtlicher Partnerschaften in den Scientific Use Files 1973 bis 2014. GESIS Papers 2019/09. https://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/handle/document/63307