1. Family Sociology
Cohabitation

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

3. Cohabitation The Census Bureau refers to cohabitors as:
Persons of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters or
POSSLQs

4. Currently Cohabiting vs. Ever Cohabited
Cohabiting is now the typical pathway to marriage
About 6.6 percent of all households are unamarried partners
This is the measure of cohabiting at a given point in time
A larger proportion of people have ever cohabited
More than 2/3 percent of marriages today are preceded by cohabitation
(source, Kennedy & Bumpass, 2007, Manning and Cohen, 2010)

5. Two Decades of Trends in the Percentage of Women 19-44 Who Cohabited Prior to Marriage

6. Two Decades of Trends by Age in the Percentage of women 19-44 who Ever Cohabited

7. Cohabitation In 2010, Census Bureau estimates of cohabitation
The Census calls these couples unmarried partners
Of these:
6.8 million are unmarried opposite-sex partners and
646,500 are unmarried same-sex partners
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2010

8. 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.

9. Cohabitation
Whether a cohabiting relationship ends in marriage or a breakup depends, on why people are living together.
Those with the lowest levels of commitment (dating cohabitation) are more likely to split up than those in a premarital cohabitation,
(Lichter and Qian, 2008).

10. Cohabitation New research
Manning and Cohen used data from a National Survey collected from 2006 – 2008
The survey included women who were married since 1996
They found NO differnce in divorce rates between those who cohabited prior to marriage and those who did not cohabit
Source:

11. Cohabitation
There are many different ways to conceive of cohabitation:
An alternative, but more intimate form of single life
A stage in the process of becoming married
A distinct arrangement unlike being single or married

12. Cohabitation
Another big change associated with cohabitation is the increase in the cohabiting households “with children present”
1 in 5 children are born to unmarried, cohabitating couples. 2 in 5 are expected to be living in a cohabitating couple by the age of 12.

13. Data on Cohabitation on the CDC

14. Cohabitation
What are some of the reasons for the rise in cohabitation?
1) 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.

15. 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”

16. Cohabitation
What are some of the reasons for the rise in cohabitation?
2) Sexual Revolution
Ø    Development of better contraceptive technologies
In other words, people could plan when to have children
This was a very revolutionary concept
Ø    More sexual permissiveness and along with that -- pre- marital sex has become more readily accepted

17. 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
Ø    less religious
Ø    less bound by social conformity
Ø    more individual autonomy and greater freedom of choice
People no longer do things just because “that’s the way it’s done”

18. 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
Ø    More advantageous for minorities and poorer whites with low economic status
Ø    Male income and employment is lower

19. 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

20. Cohabitation
A second reason why cohabitation has been more common among the poor:
Many social programs will 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

21. Characteristics of Cohabitating Couples
Cohabitors more likely to have a woman who earns more money than man than married couples
Cohabitors have higher rates of being interracial than married couples
Cohabitors have higher rates of sexual frequency and are more likely break up if frequency is low (compared to married couples)
In sum – cohabitors are less traditional than married couples