Transitions From Sexual Relationships Into Cohabitation and Beyond

Abstract

Much research on cohabitation has focused on transitions from cohabitation to marriage or dissolution, but less is known about how rapidly women progress into cohabitation, what factors are associated with the tempo to shared living, and whether the timing into cohabitation is associated with subsequent marital transitions. We use data from the 2006-2013 National Survey of Family Growth to answer these questions among women whose most recent sexual relationship began within 10 years of the interview. Life table results indicate that transitions into cohabitation are most common early in sexual relationships; nearly one-quarter of women had begun cohabiting within six months of becoming sexually involved. Multivariate analyses reveal important social class disparities in the timing to cohabitation. Not only are women from more-advantaged backgrounds significantly less likely to cohabit, but those who do cohabit enter shared living at significantly slower tempos than women whose mothers lacked a college degree. In addition, among sexual relationships that transitioned into cohabiting unions, college-educated women were significantly more likely to transition into marriage than less-educated women. Finally, although the tempo effect is only weakly significant, women who moved in within the first year of their sexual relationship demonstrated lower odds of marrying than did women who deferred cohabiting for over a year. Relationship processes are diverging by social class, contributing to inequality between more- and less-advantaged young adults.

Trajectories of Union Transition in Emerging Adulthood: Socioeconomic Status and Race/Ethnicity Differences in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 Cohort

“…In terms of SES, we found that individuals with a college degree (compared with individuals without a college degree) were more likely to be in the “late 20s marriage” cluster, but less likely to be in the “early 20s marriage” cluster. This finding is also in broad agreement with past findings suggesting that higher SES groups are more likely to delay the formation of cohabitation, but are more likely to transit into marriage once they are cohabiting (Ishizuka, ; Sassler et al, ).…”

“…Family background was assessed via parents' highest educational attainment and family structure at the time when respondents were aged 18. Both of these measures have been commonly used to assess the relative social and economic position of families in the United States (McLanahan, ; Sassler et al, ). The measure of parents' highest educational attainment was derived based on the following two items in the survey: (a) “Highest grade completed by respondent's biological mother/father (includes both residential and non‐residential mothers/fathers)” and (b) “Highest grade completed by respondent's residential mother/father (includes both biological and non‐biological mothers/fathers).” We first calculated the highest education of the respondent's biological mother or father (if either contained a missing value, we used the other as the highest education).…”

“…For instance, individuals are quicker to form first unions and are at higher risk of union dissolution if they have experienced changes in living arrangements or lived with nonmarried or nonbiological parents during their childhood (Amato & Patterson, 2017;Fomby & Bosick, 2013;Ryan, Franzetta, Schelar, & Manlove, 2009;Teachman, 2003). Others showed that children whose mothers or parents did not go to college are more likely to enter cohabitation when compared with those whose mothers or parents had a college degree (Cavanagh, 2011;Sassler et al, 2018).…”

“…For instance, Lichter and Qian (, p. 861) found that those with two or more prior episodes of cohabitation (who they term “serial cohabitors”) to marriage were more likely to get divorced when compared with those without cohabitation experience or those with only one prior episode of cohabitation. Sassler, Michelmore, and Qian () showed that taking a longer time in a relationship before cohabitation increased the probability of subsequently transitioning from cohabitation to marriage.…”

“…One study found that children from single‐parent families are more likely to form casual sexual relationships (Sandberg‐Thomas & Kamp Dush, ). Once they enter into cohabitation, children from single‐parent families are less likely to marry and do so at slower rates when compared with those from two‐biological‐parent families (Sassler et al, ). Economic hardship might incentivize young adults to leave home earlier despite lacking the necessary resources to maintain independent households (Sassler & Miller, ).…”