Neue Normalitäten in Partnerschaft und Elternschaft in Österreich? Wandel von Verhalten, Einstellungen und rechtlichen Normen

In recent decades, behaviors, attitudes, and legal norms regarding partnership and parenthood have changed. This paper explores whether these changes have taken place in parallel and whether ‘new normalities’ have been established. We examine developments over a period of more than three decades in the following areas: (a) non-marital cohabitation; (b) divorce, single-parent families, and stepfamilies; (c) same-sex partnerships and family relationships; and (d) medically assisted parenthood.

The primary data source is the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) 1988 to 2023. Additionally, the European Values Study and the Generations and Gender Survey Programme are utilized. Furthermore, data from Statistics Austria on changes in family forms are presented.

The findings show the complex interplay between behavior, attitudes, and legal norms: developments did not always occur in parallel over time. For instance, positive attitudes towards non-marital cohabitation were already widespread when this form of living arrangement gained significance in the mid-1990s. Changes in legal norms also sometimes occurred with a delay relative to corresponding changes in attitudes; for example, same-sex marriages have only been legally possible since 2019, even though same-sex partnerships have been increasingly supported since the late 1990s. The analyses suggest that new normalities are emerging while older norms, particularly the two-parent norm and the heteronormativity norm, continue to persist.