Do Italians still contact their mother? Several differences by type of union

The objective of this paper is to build on the knowledge about the association between type of partnership – marriage versus cohabitation – and the strength and type of contact with parents in Italy in the 2000s. We addressed this issue by considering face-to-face, telephone, and mixed contact, and by adopting a simultaneous equation approach to account for endogeneity and selection effects on two large, nationally representative surveys conducted in 2003 and 2009. Our results proved that Italian adult cohabiters of the 2000s have a lower probability of meeting their mother in person on a daily basis compared to married people, but they are more likely to have daily telephone calls with her. Overall, no differences between married and cohabitant couples appear when considering a composite indicator of mixed contact. Contacts with the mother progressively increased during the period considered, especially for cohabiters. Rather than differences between cohabiters and spouses in the frequency of contact per se, we proved the existence of differences in the form of contact, showing that contemporary societies may see changes in the way that contact is maintained.