Overcrowded Housing and Relationship Break-up

Abstract

To what extent is there an association between crowding and relationship break-up? And if so, is it a causal relationship? Housing space may affect the probability of separation because of stress, lower subjective well being, and poor mental health, any of which could put pressure on the relationship with the partner and eventually cause a break-up. Using the Luxembourgish PSELL 2003–2011, we operationalize crowding with a subjective measure. We check for the following confounding factors: financial difficulties, home ownership, nationality, and type of household member. We find that there is no significant association between crowding and separation once confounders are taken into account, not to mention causality. Instead, home ownership turns out to be of the utmost importance in explaining the bivariate association between crowding and union dissolution.