Measuring Cohabitation and Family Structure in the United States: Assessing the Impact of New Data From the Current Population Survey

Abstract

In 2007, the Current Population Survey (CPS) introduced a measure that identifies all cohabiting partners in a household, regardless of whether they describe themselves as “unmarried partners” in the relationship to householder question. The CPS now also links children to their biological, step-, and adoptive parents. Using these new variables, we analyze the prevalence of cohabitation as well as the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of different-sex cohabiting couples during the years 2007–2009. Estimates of cohabitation produced using only unmarried partnerships miss 18 % of all cohabiting unions and 12 % of children residing with cohabiting parents. Although differences between unmarried partners and most newly identified cohabitors are small, newly identified cohabitors are older, on average, and are less likely to be raising shared biological or adopted children. These new measures also allow us to identify a small number of young, disadvantaged couples who primarily reside in households of other family members, most commonly with parents. We conclude with an examination of the complex living arrangements and poverty status of American children, demonstrating the broader value of these new measures for research on American family and household structure.

Predicting Unprotected Sex and Unplanned Pregnancy among Urban African-American Adolescent Girls Using the Theory of Gender and Power

“…Regressions for cohabitation among minors were limited to respondents under 18 at the time of the survey, n = 327, 229, and 159 at the three waves, and n = 714 within 328 observations in the panel data 6-12 months of baseline, significantly higher than the percentage of noncohabiters who became pregnant. The relationship was particularly strong for minors (ages [15][16][17] who lived with their boyfriends, as would be predicted by the Theory of Gender and Power because minors have greater vulnerability to coercion than adults. This finding is not explained by cohabiting leading to more frequent sex or more unprotected sex, which was controlled for in the regressions.…”

“…Youth is an independent socioeconomic exposure and may also modify the effect of cohabitation because cohabitation is rare for minors 17 and represents a potential for worse outcomes, 21 so we evaluate cohabitation for all participants and also separately for minors.…”

“…Among respondents ages 15-19, 6.8 % cohabited, above the national average for those ages of 1.8-5.6 %. [17][18][19] Cohabiting adolescents were almost 35 percentage points more likely to have unprotected sex than adolescents in other living arrangements, which had small to medium effect size (Table 2). Cohabiting minors were on average 41 percentage points more likely to have unprotected sex, which is classified as a small but significant effect size.…”

“…8 Cohabitation is a potential source of relationship inequality, especially for poor youth in urban areas with a shortage of affordable housing. Cohabitation among adolescents is rare in the general population, with estimated prevalences 1.8 % among teenage minors ages 15-17 (2007-2009 Current Population Survey), 17 and 5.6 and 4.8 % among ages 15-20 (2002 and 2006-10 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG)). 18,19 Youth from poor families are more likely to leave their parents' home before age 18 than youth from nonpoor families 20 and thus more likely to cohabit.…”

Cohabitation and Child Well-Being

“…2 By age 12, 40 percent of children had spent some time living with parents who were cohabiting. 3 In other words, cohabitation has become a central part of the family landscape for both children and adults, so much so that my colleague Pamela Smock and I have characterized this development as a "cohabitation revolution." 4…”