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Tuesday, 30 July 2013

More committed Australian couples are choosing to live in two houses instead of one - and a researcher at The University of Western Australia wants to know how Living Apart Together (LAT) relationships might affect men.

Assistant Professor Karen Upton-Davis, of UWA's School of Population Health, said a LAT relationship was one involving intimate partners who live at different addresses.  One in four of Australia's supposedly single adult population lived in such a relationship, she said.

Assistant Professor Upton-Davis spoke with 20 women in LAT relationships, and in the second stage of her investigations into this social phenomenon is hoping to recruit financially independent heterosexual men to find out how Living Apart Together affects them.

"The women I interviewed said the advantages of being in a LAT relationship included increased autonomy, a decreased domestic workload and spending time with family and friends separate from their partner," she said.

"Now we want to know what's in it for men."

Assistant Professor Upton-Davis wants to find out whether asset protection, in the event of the relationship breaking down, is a consideration in opting to LAT.

"I also want to find out the extent to which the relationship is a buffer against loneliness, particularly as Australian men suffer more from loneliness than Australian women do," she said.

LAT relationships shift how men and women relate to each other.  As such they provide a window into important shifts in relations between men and women.

Media references

Assistant Professor Karen Upton-Davis (UWA Social Work and Social Policy)  (+61 8)  6488 2993
Michael Sinclair-Jones (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 3229  /  (+61 4) 00 700 783

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