The Process of Entering into Cohabiting Unions

Sharon L. Sassler

270 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Marriage and the Family

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Family Dynamics and Relationships Marriage and Family Dynamics Marriage and Sexual Relationships

Abstract

Over one half of young adults have lived or will live with a partner before marriage. Many studies indicate that the majority of cohabitors plan to marry their partners, yet research examining relationship progression is rare. This article deciphers the processes underlying entrance into informal unions. Data are from 25 open‐ended interviews with cohabitors who had lived together for at least 3 months. For many, the relationship progressed rapidly; over one half moved in with partners within 6 months of initiating romantic relationships. Primary reasons for cohabiting included finances, convenience, and housing needs; cohabiting as a trial marriage was not mentioned as the principal reason for moving in together. Plans for marriage remain abstract even when respondents determine that they and their partners are compatible.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 270 citations exist upstream.

References

1998Basics of qualitative research : techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory 2012Collecting and Interpreting Qualitative Materials 2001Improving Pregnancy Outcome during Imprisonment: A Model Residential Care Program 1988A Theory of Marriage Timing 2000Trends in cohabitation and implications for children s family contexts in the United States 1994Criteria for assessing interpretive validity in qualitative research.2001Four Decades of Trends in Attitudes Toward Family Issues in the United States: The 1960s Through the 1990s 2000Cohabitation in the United States: An Appraisal of Research Themes, Findings, and Implications

Cited by

2012Labeling and Stigma 2012The Routledge Handbook of Family Communication 2012Premarital Cohabitation and Marital Dissolution: An Examination of Recent Marriages 2010Commitment: Functions, Formation, and the Securing of Romantic Attachment 2014Two Decades of Stability and Change in Age at First Union Formation

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.