The living apart together (LAT) model and the cohabiting partner model in the Spanish Armed Forces

Abstract

Labor mobility is common in certain professions, including the Armed Forces. Military people have to assume several changes of assignment along their   carriers and, sometimes, these changes implies geographical mobility. In these situations, when the military has a partner and /or children can take two alternatives. The first is to move just the military to the new location, creating a living apart together model (LAT) and, the second, is when the couple or the whole family move together, creating a cohabiting model. This article has the objective of studying the presence and features of the LAT Model and the Cohabiting Model in the Spanish Armed Forces. To this end, a methodology was designed based on the survey technique with a self-administred questionnaire structured from three thematic areas (sociodemographic, military and opinion) and which was spread by different associations of military and families of Spanish military. The results show which are the main variables that affect the decision to choose one or other of two models (labor, economic and family) and how each model of living affect the couple and the children.