‘Weeding’ in the Netherlands: First-Union Disruption among Men and Women Born Between 1928 and 1965

This is a study of the effect of pre-marital cohabitation on marital stability in the Netherlands on the basis of life course data collected in 1984. According to the ‘weeding’ hypothesis, husband and wife who have first tested their relationship successfully in a consensual union should be better equipped to deal with the build-up of possible tensions. The focus of comparison in the present study is on Sweden. By way of introduction some theoretical notions on life course research in general are first put forward. The empirical analysis itself is divided into two parts. In Part One a semi-parametric approach to the Dutch data seems to confirm the contradictory pattern found for Sweden, namely that marital partners who have lived together pre-maritally are subject to first union disruption risks that are not any lower than those for marital partners who did not go through such a preparatory phase. In Part Two, however, results from a stratified, fully parametric model seem to call the validity of these findings into question. Evidence from a (log)logistic specification of first union disruption risks in the Netherlands points clearly in the direction of strong ‘weeding’ effects.