Cohabitation,Relationship Quality,and Desistance From Crime

Although the empirical links between marriage and desistance are well established, very little is known about the degree to which cohabitation is associated with changes in criminal behavior. This is a significant oversight given that, among some segments of the population, cohabitation has become more common than marriage. In this article, the author investigated the links between cohabitation and desistance from crime. In doing so, particular attention was paid to the possibility that similarities between the apparent effects of marriage and cohabitation are obscured by variations in relationship quality and the increasing tendency for cohabitation to precede marriage. Analyses based on the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (N = 3,232) indicate that cohabitation is associated with reductions in the rate of property and drug offending, but not the termination of violent, property, or drug offending. By contrast, marriage is consistently associated with large reductions in the rate of offending across the 3 crime categories as well as the abandonment of those crimes. These results provide greater insight into the links between adult family relationships, such as cohabitation and marriage, and desistance from crime.     

The Influence of Union Transitions on White Adults’ Attitudes Toward Cohabitation

Data from the Intergenerational Panel Study of Parents and Children are used to identify the influences of adult union transitions on changes in attitudes toward cohabitation among a sample of 794 young adults. The analysis examines the extent to which attitudes about cohabitation change as a result of entry into and exit from cohabitation and marriage. A dynamic interpretation of union transitions is formulated, and results demonstrate that entry into a first cohabitation and divorce after direct entry into marriage are associated with increasingly positive attitudes toward cohabitation between the ages of 18 and 31. Some evidence suggests that direct entry into stable marriage leads young adults to view cohabitation less favorably.     

What Explains the Decline in First Marriage in the United States? Evidence from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, 1969 to 2013

Rates of entry into first marriage have declined sharply in the United States during the past half century, and there is evidence of broad gaps in marriage entry by race and education. Although a large literature explores the influences on marriage for single cohorts, there is little research that tests explanations for this decline across multiple cohorts. The authors use individual and contextual measures of employment and incarceration to predict transitions to first marriage in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (1969–2013). They test two prominent theories of why marriage rates have declined: the decreased availability of “marriageable” men and the increased economic standing of women. They find that men's reduced economic prospects and increased risk of incarceration contributed to the decline in first marriage rates during the past 45 years in the United States, although these basic measures of economic and carceral conditions cannot explain the entire decline.     

Cohabitation and Marriage: Complexity and Diversity in Union-Formation Patterns

Nonmarital cohabitation and marriage are now fundamentally linked, a fact that is routinely reflected in current research on union formation. Unprecedented changes in the timing, duration, and sequencing of intimate co-residential relationships have made the study of traditional marriage far more complex today than in the past. It is now clear that a white, middle-class, American-centric research template has become increasingly anachronistic. In this review article, we begin by providing an overview of contemporary theory, empirical approaches, and demographic trends in cohabitation and marriage, focusing primarily on the United States, but also distinguishing the U.S. from patterns found in other high-income societies, including European countries, Canada, Australia, and in East Asia. We place the spotlight on the causes and consequences of union transitions. We identify the commonalities between cohabitation and marriage, but also key differences that are expressed unevenly across different populations and cultural groups. The rise in nonmarital cohabitation has upended conventional theoretical models and measurement approaches to the study of traditional marriage, complicating matters but also reinvigorating family scholarship on union formation and its implications for partners, children, and society.     

Abortion Costs,Separation, and Non-marital Childbearing

How do abortion costs affect non-marital childbearing? While greater access to abortion has the first-order effect of reducing childbearing among pregnant women, it could nonetheless lead to unintended consequences through effects on marriage market norms. Single motherhood could rise if low-cost abortion makes it easier for men to avoid marriage. This study estimated the effect of abortion costs on separation, cohabitation and marriage following a birth by exploiting miscarriage and changes in state abortion laws. There is evidence that norms responded to abortion laws as women who gave birth under abortion restrictions experienced sizable decreases in single motherhood and increased cohabitation rates. The results underscore the importance of norms regulating relationship dynamics in explaining high levels of non-marital childbearing and single motherhood.     

The Relationship Between Cohabitation and Marital Quality and Stability: Change Across Cohorts?

The relationship between premarital cohabitation and marital dysfunction was examined with a total sample of 1,425 spouses in two U.S. marriage cohorts: those married between 1964 and 1980 (when cohabitation was less common) and those married between 1981 and 1997 (when cohabitation was more common). Spouses in both cohorts who cohabited prior to marriage reported poorer marital quality and greater marital instability. When selection factors for cohabitation and subsequent marital instability were included in the statistical model, cohabitors in both cohorts continued to exhibit poorer marital quality and greater marital instability. These findings lend stronger support to an experience of cohabitation perspective than to a selection perspective as an explanation for why couples who cohabit before marriage tend to have more troubled relationships.     

Union Formation and Depression: Selection and Relationship Effects

Many studies have established that married people fare better than their never‐married counterparts in terms of psychological well‐being. It is still unclear, however, whether this advantage is due primarily to beneficial effects of marriage or to the selection of psychologically healthier individuals into marriage. This study employs data on young adults from both waves of the National Survey of Families and Households to test hypotheses based on both selection (N= 878) and relationship (N= 722) effects. Further, we differentiate union formation into cohabitation and marriage with and without prior cohabitation. Results indicate no evidence of selection of less depressed persons into either marriage or cohabitation, but a negative effect of entry into marriage on depression, particularly when marriage was not preceded by cohabitation.     

Historical Trends in the Marital Intentions of One‐Time and Serial Cohabitors

This study explored whether cohabitors' marital intentions have changed over time and whether they are sensitive to a person's cohabitation history, that is, the number of cohabitations individuals have experienced. Using a sample of ever‐cohabited women, 16–28 years old, from the 2002 and 2006–2010 National Survey of Family Growth (N = 6,023), the author found that the prevalence of serial cohabitation continues to increase among younger birth cohorts. Furthermore, the share of female cohabitors with plans to marry has been declining across time, net of demographic controls and cohabitation history. Serial cohabitation has strong negative associations with marital intentions, a pattern that was not present among the oldest birth cohort but has emerged among more recent cohorts. These findings extend prior work by showing that the downward trend in cohabitors' marital intentions is continuing among the youngest cohort of women and, importantly, is not explained by serial cohabitation.     

Residential Differences in Family Formation: The Significance of Cohabitation*

Abstract We update and extend prior research on residential differences in women's family formation experiences using data from the 1995 cycle of the National Survey of Family Growth. Residential differences in the timing of family formation behaviors are examined, including first birth, first cohabitation, and first marriage. Our study emphasizes the significance of cohabitation, estimating the effect of geographic residence on type of union formation (i.e., cohabitation versus marriage) and relationship context of first birth (i.e., cohabiting, married, or single). We find that (1) the timing of family formation behaviors, including marriage and childbearing, differs by residence; (2) nonmetro women are more likely to enter marriage and marry at younger ages than their metro counterparts; and (3) when marriage and cohabitation are presented as competing risks, nonmetro women are more likely to marry than cohabit both as a first union and a first birth context.     

Trends in Cohabitation Outcomes: Compositional Changes and Engagement Among Never‐Married Young Adults

Cohabitation is now the modal first union for young adults, and most marriages are preceded by cohabitation even as fewer cohabitations transition to marriage. These contrasting trends may be due to compositional shifts among cohabiting unions, which are increasingly heterogeneous in terms of cohabitation order, engagement, and the presence of children, as well as across socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. The author constructs 5‐year cohabitation cohorts for 18‐ to 34‐year‐olds from the 2002 and 2006–2010 cycles of the National Survey of Family Growth (n = 17,890 premarital cohabitations) to examine the outcomes of cohabitations over time. Compared to earlier cohabitations, those formed after 1995 were more likely to dissolve, and those formed after 2000 were less likely to transition to marriage even after accounting for the compositional shifts among individuals in cohabiting unions. Higher instability and decreased chances of marriage occurred among both engaged and non‐engaged individuals, suggesting society‐wide changes in cohabitation over time.     

Sense and sensibility: cohabitation in ‘cohabitation land’

In many European countries, cohabitation has become a prevailing practice. Norway is one of the countries leading this trend; cohabitation before marriage is the norm and a majority of couples become parents before they (eventually) marry. This article explores the meaning of cohabitation for Norwegian couples today through a qualitative analysis of interviews with 17 urban, heterosexual couples. As the trend towards increased cohabitation has emerged so strongly in Norway, such analysis may provide important insights into the possible implications of more widespread cohabitation in Europe. Why is cohabitation so attractive to young Norwegians today? Why do most couples postpone marriage until after they have children? The main finding is that cohabitation in this context is understood as acting according to important norms about intimate relationships. Cohabitation is a way of dealing with the complexity of attitudes towards love and relationships in late modernity. The option of living together outside marriage makes it possible for couples to be sensible (not committing themselves ‘too much’) as well as living together when they want to develop a relationship and are ‘in love’.     

Premarital Cohabitation and Marital Dissolution in Postreform China

The author uses cohabitation data from the 2010 Chinese Family Panel Studies to analyze the association of premarital cohabitation with subsequent divorce of first marriage. After balancing selection factors that influence premarital cohabitation through propensity score matching, the author uses Cox proportional hazards models to examine the selection, causation, and diffusion perspectives on the relationship between premarital cohabitation and marital dissolution. The results show that premarital cohabitation is positively associated with divorce for those married in the early‐reform period (1980–1994) when cohabitation was uncommon. However, this relationship disappears for those married in the late‐reform period (1995–2010) when cohabitation became more prevalent. The findings suggest variation in the link between premarital cohabitation and divorce across different marriage cohorts and provide strong evidence for the diffusion perspective in postreform China. Supplemental sensitivity analyses support the robustness of the conclusion.     

The Stability of Same‐Sex Cohabitation,Different‐Sex Cohabitation,and Marriage

This study contributes to the emerging demographic literature on same‐sex couples by comparing the level and correlates of union stability among 4 types of couples: (a) male same‐sex cohabitation, (b) female same‐sex cohabitation, (c) different‐sex cohabitation, and (d) different‐sex marriage. The author analyzed data from 2 British birth cohort studies: the National Child Development Study (N = 11,469) and the 1970 British Cohort Study (N = 11,924). These data contain retrospective histories of same‐sex and different‐sex unions throughout young adulthood (age 16–34) from 1974 through 2004. Event‐history analyses showed that same‐sex cohabitations have higher rates of dissolution than do different‐sex cohabiting and marital unions. Among same‐sex couples, male couples had slightly higher dissolution rates than did female couples. In addition, same‐sex couples from the 1958 and 1970 birth cohorts had similar levels of union stability. The demographic correlates of union stability are generally similar for same‐sex and different‐sex unions.     

How do sex ratios in China influence marriage decisions and intra-household resource allocation?

This article examines how imbalanced sex ratios influence marriage decisions and household bargaining. Using data from the 1982 Chinese census, the traditional “availability ratio” is modified to reflect the degree to which men tend to marry women from different cohorts. This ratio reflects the average tendency of men to prefer women who are close in age to women who are several years younger than them by weighting cohort sizes using the proportion of people in the population who marry someone born in a different cohort. Given that men generally marry younger women, this ratio varies independently of the size of one’s own birth cohort. Yet, the ratio fluctuates considerably across individuals, as the sizes of birth cohorts in China vary across time and regions. This enables us to examine how variability in such ratios may influence marriage decisions and household bargaining. The findings suggest that women exercise greater bargaining power once married. Results indicate that as women become scarcer in the marriage market, they have healthier sons. Men also delay marriage, and consume less tobacco and alcohol. This paper also highlights how sensitive findings may be to using this modified weighted availability ratio rather than a traditional unweighted availability ratio.     

Nonmarital Relationships and Changing Perceptions of Marriage Among African American Young Adults

Cohabitation has become increasingly widespread over the past decade. Such trends have given rise to debates about the relation between cohabitation and marriage in terms of what cohabitation means for individual relationship trajectories and for the institution of marriage more generally. Using recent data from a sample of almost 800 African Americans and fixed effects modeling procedures, in the present study the authors shed some light on these debates by exploring the extent to which cohabitation, relative to both singlehood and dating, was associated with within‐individual changes in African Americans' marital beliefs during the transition to adulthood. The findings suggest that cohabitation is associated with changes in marital beliefs, generally in ways that repositioned partners toward marriage, not away from it. This was especially the case for women. These findings suggest that, for young African American women, cohabitation holds a distinct place relative to dating and, in principle if not practice, relative to marriage.     

THE ECONOMICS OF FAMILY FORMATION*

In this article an economic model of the determinants of first marriage is formulated and then empirically tested. The model incorporates household production theory and search theory in order to explain the incentives to marry and the determinants of the age at first marriage. Age at first marriage is viewed as depending on the determinants of entry into the marriage market and the duration of search for a spouse. Empirical results from the 1967 Survey of Economic Opportunity show a negative effect of male wages and a positive effect of female wages on own age at marriage. Additionally, education and urbanization are found to have positive effects and number of children a negative effect.     

Racial Differences in Transitions to Marriage for Unmarried Mothers

Unlike prior studies that have explained racial differences in the transitions to marriage among unmarried women, our study used the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine racial differences in the transitions to marriage among unmarried women following a non-marital birth. We found that Black mothers were 60–65% more likely to delay marriage after a non-marital birth compared to White mothers and these racial gaps were only partially explained by economic, demographic and attitudinal factors. Our paper further contributes to this literature by examining changes in cohabitation patterns, educational attainment, poverty status and attitudes of gender distrust that are able to partially explain and reduce these racial gaps in transitions to marriage. With the general decline in marriage and rise in cohabitation, our paper tried to assess whether cohabitation is a leading factor for marriage or a substitute for marriage for unmarried mothers. Racial disparities have important implications for child wellbeing and intergenerational transmission of inequalities.     

Do women value marriage more? The effect of obesity on cohabitation and marriage in the USA

This paper looks into the impact of obesity and other factors on first entry into a marital or cohabiting union, using 1997 cohort data from the national longitudinal survey. Results show obese women are less likely to be accepted into either cohabitation or marriage, while obese men are less likely to be accepted in a cohabitating relation but are not less likely to enter into marriage. Income affects all union and all genders symmetrically, increasing the likelihood of a union. These results suggest that marriage is a special form of union for women, so they are willing to marry obese men because they value other factors related to the marriage choice, such as commitment or the prospect of having children. Men do not appear to value these factors as much, so obese women are less likely to be accepted into either cohabitation or marriage.

“No Matter What,Good or Bad,Love is Still There”: Motivations for Romantic Commitment Among Black Cohabiting Couples

Given the increasing number of couples that use cohabitation as a pathway or alternative to marriage, few studies to date have examined the factors that facilitate relationship entry and commitment. Recent study findings reveal children born to Black mothers as compared with White mothers have a 72% higher risk of experiencing their parents’ separation by year 3 and Black married parents have 5.33 times the risk of separating within 3 years after their child's birth relative to White married parents. However, few studies to date have examined the factors that increase the likelihood that cohabiting Black couples will enter and remain in a committed relationship. To fill the current void that exists in the literature and through the use of phenomenology as the foundation, I asked 30 low-income cohabiting Black couples the following question: “What do you think motivated your partner to commit to you?” Qualitative analysis of the responses revealed the following six themes: (1) no response/unsure, (2) physical appearance, (3) emotional and tangible support, (4) honesty and friendship, (5) love and commitment, and (6) personality and treatment. Implications for practitioners, policy, and research are also provided.     

Changes in conjugal life in Canada: Is cohabitation progressively replacing marriage?

This article aims first to contrast the trends of marriage and cohabitation across different regions in Canada, and second, to assess whether cohabitation constitutes a new stage in the progression to marriage, or an alternative to marriage altogether. Based on various empirical demographic indicators, the analysis shows profound differences across the country. In Quebec, cohabiting unions are now widely accepted as forming the basis for family life, whereas they still largely constitute a childless prelude to marriage elsewhere in Canada. The authors discuss the role of different religious and cultural backgrounds, and of recent changes in the relationships between men and women, in accounting for the divergent evolution observed.