Cohabitation

Family SociologyFamily Sociology

Cohabitation

Let’s begin with a definition of cohabitation:

Cohabitation: The sharing of a household by unmarried individuals who have a sexual relationshipGenerally there are two types of cohabitation 1) Both partners plan to marry each other in the near future.2) Cohabitation as alternative to marriage.

Cohabitation

•The Census Bureau refers to cohabitors as:

•Persons of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters or

•POSSLQs

Number of Unmarried Couples who are Cohabiting

Source: Bumpass & Sweet, 1989.

McGraw-Hill College

8-2

0

1,000,000

2,000,000

3,000,000

4,000,000

5,000,000

6,000,000

1970 1980 1990 1998 2000

In 2007:•6.4 million opposite-sex unmarried couples are living together

•Four out of 10, or approximately 2.5 million opposite-sex unmarried couples, lived with at least one biological child of either partner

Currently Cohabiting vs. Ever Cohabited

• Approximately 10 percent of women and 12 percent of men are currently cohabiting (Casper & Bianchi)

• This is the measure of cohabiting at a given point in time (a snapshot)

• A larger proportion of people have ever cohabited

• More than 67 percent of marriages today are preceded by cohabitation

• (Source: Kennsdy & Bumpass, 2007)

• How can the current cohabitation rates be different by sex?

Cohabitation• In 2000, Census Bureau estimates of

cohabitation

•About 11 million people (5.5 million couples) living with an unmarried partner in the U.S.

•Of these:▫9.7 million are unmarried different-sex

partners and ▫1.2 million are unmarried same-sex

partners

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census

Survey of high school seniors shows

In 2006:64% of high school seniors

endorse cohabitation prior to marriage

In 1976:Only 40% of high school seniors endorsed cohabitation before marriage

Source: http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/08/pathways2adulthood/execsum.shtml

Cohabitation

 

What are some of the reasons for the rise in cohabitation?

Feminism

Increase in female education

Increased employment opportunities for women

Career goals changed, more jobs opening to women.

Women’s increasing participation in the paid workforce means less economic need to depend on a man in marriage.

Cohabitation

• In sum:•Because women have the potential for greater

independence, they may be less willing to commit to a relationship, until they “try it out”

Cohabitation

 

What are some of the reasons for the rise in cohabitation?

2) Sexual Revolution

Development of better contraceptive technologies

In other words, people could plan when to have children

This was a very revolutionary concept

More sexual permissiveness and along with that -- pre-marital sex has become more readily accepted

Source: Bailey, B. in Skolnick & Skolnick text

Cohabitation

 

What are some of the reasons for the rise in cohabitation?

3) Major cultural shifts have occurred in U.S., thus our society in general has become

    less religious

    less bound by social conformity

    more individual autonomy and greater freedom of choice

People no longer do things just because “that’s the way it’s done”

Cohabitation•Couples who cohabit prior to marriage have

a higher divorce rate than couples who did not cohabit

▫This is the result of a selection effect, people who cohabit may be less traditional and more likely to divorce in general

•Thus, cohabiting does NOT CAUSE divorce

Selection EffectMore traditional couple

Less traditional couple

then cohabits

then marries

then marries

dates

dates

Selection Effect

Think about how a more traditional couple might differ in their views of marriage or divorce compared to a less traditional couple?

In other words -- besides the fact that they cohabit or not – what differentiates these types of couples?

Cohabitation There are three different ways to

conceive of cohabitation:

1) An alternative, but more intimate form of single life

2) A stage in the process of becoming married

3) A distinct arrangement unlike being single or married

Cohabitation

 Among what group of people in the U.S. did cohabitation first start?

Cohabitation began in the lower classes then moved to middle classes

More advantageous for minorities and poorer whites with low economic status

Male income and employment is lower

Cohabitation 

Male economic status is still an important determinant of ability to marry and why women want to marry him

Thus, marriage will be less likely if the male or couple is poor

Cohabitation 6 possible social barriers to marriage

among disadvantaged Americans:

1) marital aspirations and expectations 2) norms about childbearing3) financial standards for marriage4) quality of their relationships5) aversion to divorce6) children by other partners

Source: Edin & Reed, 2005

Cohabitation

 

Cohabitation has been more common among the poor because many social programs cut off benefits for people (particularly women) who marry –

Social Security

Alimony

Welfare

New Welfare reform laws have changed this – you no longer immediately lose benefits if you marry

Cohabitation

•Cohabiting couples have higher break up rates than married couples

•About ½ of cohabiting couples either break-up or marry within 1 year.

•9 in 10 cohabiting couples marry within 5 years.

Cohabitation and children•Another big change associated with cohabitation is the increase in the cohabiting households “with children present”

•In 2007, 4 out of 10 opposite sex cohabiting partners had children from one or both partners

•40% of births outside marriage to cohabitating couples

Characteristics of Cohabitating Couples

 

Cohabiting couples are less traditional than married couples:

For example, cohabiting couples are more likely to:

have an older woman/younger man than married couples (Go Cougars!)

have a woman who earns more money than man than married couples

be interracial

Research by Yabiku & Gager

 

Cohabitors have higher rates of sexual frequency

and are more likely break up if frequency is low (compared to married couples)

Why?

Married couples may expect lower sexual frequency

Married couples share more assets, (houses) and are more likely to live with children related to BOTH parents (compared with cohabiting couples)

Research by Yabiku & Gager

 

In sum:

cohabitors who report low sexual frequency are more likely to break up than married couples who report low sexual frequency

again, cohabitors are less traditional than married couples