Cohabitation Experience and Cohabitation's Association With Marital Dissolution

Michael J. Rosenfeld · Katharina Roesler

127 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Marriage and the Family

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

Abstract

Background Before data existed on premarital cohabitation and divorce, scholars assumed that the experience of premarital cohabitation would select compatible couples into marriage and lead to lower rates of divorce. The advent of data on premarital cohabitation and divorce overturned the early preconceptions, as premarital cohabitation was found to be associated with higher rates of divorce. Premarital cohabitation has risen dramatically in the United States. Scholars disagree about whether the divorce rates of premarital cohabiters and noncohabiters have converged. Method A harmonized data set of 6 waves of the retrospective National Surveys of Family Growth (with 216,455 couple‐years) is analyzed with discrete time‐event history methods to predict marital dissolution. The data are nationally representative of women aged 44 years and younger in first marriages in the United States for 1970 to 2015. Different criteria for model selection are discussed. Results The results show that in the first year of marriages, couples who cohabited before marriage have a lower marital dissolution rate than couples who did not cohabit before marriage, a difference that may be due to the practical experience of cohabitation, as couples who have cohabited learned to adapt to each other. We find that the association between marital dissolution and premarital cohabitation has not changed over time or across marriage cohorts. The benefits of cohabitation experience in the first year of marriage has misled scholars into thinking that the most recent marriage cohorts will not experience heightened marital dissolution due to premarital cohabitation. Conclusion Premarital cohabitation has short‐term benefits and longer term costs for marital stability.

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References

2013Stigma as a Fundamental Cause of Population Health Inequalities 2000Cohabitation in the United States: An Appraisal of Research Themes, Findings, and Implications 1991The Role of Cohabitation in Declining Rates of Marriage 2002Cohabitation, marriage, divorce, and remarriage in the United States 1989National Estimates of Cohabitation 1995Premarital Cohabitation and Subsequent Marital Dissolution: A Matter of Self-Selection?1992The relationship between cohabitation and divorce: Selectivity or causal influence?2003The topography of the divorce plateau

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2020Research on Marital Satisfaction and Stability in the 2010s: Challenging Conventional Wisdom 2023Emerging Adulthood 2020Young Adulthood Relationships in an Era of Uncertainty: A Case for Cohabitation 2021How Does Cohabitation Change People’s Attitudes toward Family Dissolution?2021Cohabitation and Its Consequences in Ghana 2023Re-Examining the Link Between Premarital Sex and Divorce

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