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Cahiers québécois de démographie

Vivre en couple pour la première fois : la signification du choixde l’union libre au Québec et en OntarioLIVING AS A COUPLE FOR THE FIRST TIME: THE SIGNIFICANCEOF THE CHOICE OF COHABITATION IN QUEBEC AND ONTARIOVIVIR EN PAREJA POR PRIMERA VEZ : LA ELECCION DE LAUNION LIBRE EN QUEBEC Y EN ONTARIOÉvelyne Lapierre-Adamcyk, Céline Le Bourdais and Nicole Marcil-Gratton

L’union libreVolume 28, Number 1-2, printemps–automne 1999

URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/010264arDOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/010264ar

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Publisher(s)Association des démographes du Québec

ISSN0380-1721 (print)1705-1495 (digital)

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Cite this articleLapierre-Adamcyk, É., Le Bourdais, C. & Marcil-Gratton, N. (1999). Vivre encouple pour la première fois : la signification du choix de l’union libre auQuébec et en Ontario. Cahiers québécois de démographie, 28 (1-2), 199–227.https://doi.org/10.7202/010264ar

Article abstractInspired by authors who suggest that cohabitation is a form of union thatappears to better correspond to the sensibility and mentality of recentgenerations — for whom personal growth represents the ultimate criterion forbehaviour —, the authors examine the significance of cohabitation in relationto the values associated with it, by contrasting the behaviours and attitudes ofQuebec and Ontario men and women regarding the formation of conjugalunions and families. The findings, based on Statistics Canada's 1995 GeneralSocial Survey, show that young couples opting for cohabitation rather thanmarriage are more likely to exhibit attitudes that tend to redefine whatconjugal union represents: less stress is placed on living as a couple and onchildren, marriage itself is given very little importance as a source ofhappiness, and less significance is assigned to the stability of the couple. In thisregard, Quebec couples seem to be ahead of Ontario couples.