Volume 38 - Article 66 | Pages 2073–2086  

A cohort comparison of trends in first cohabitation duration in the United States

By Sara Mernitz

Abstract

Objective: This study investigates US first cohabitation duration between young adults born in the 1950s and young adults born in the 1980s and how socioeconomic resources contribute to cohabitation duration by cohort.

Methods: Using data from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth 1979 and 1997 (NLSY79 and NLSY97), I employ life table estimates and competing-risks Cox proportional hazard models to study how cohabitation duration and transitions out of cohabitation have changed over time.

Results: Young adult cohabitations are short-lived, regardless of cohort; however, NLSY97 cohabiting youth were slower to marry or dissolve than NLSY79 cohabitors. Socioeconomically advantaged NLSY79 youth experienced short-term cohabitation followed by marriage. In the NLSY97 cohort, results provide support for the delinking of marriage and cohabitation, regardless of socioeconomic status.

Contribution: This study is the first longitudinal cohort study to explore young adult cohabitation duration in the United States. Additionally, this study empirically tests how socioeconomic resources contribute to remaining in cohabitation.

Author’s Affiliation

• Sara Mernitz - University of Texas at Austin, United States of America EMAIL

Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research

Decomposing delayed first marriage and birth across cohorts: The role of increased employment instability among men in Japan
Volume 52 - Article 21    | Keywords: cohort analysis, delayed effects, delayed marriage, delayed parenthood, Japan, precarious employment

Unmarried motherhood and infant health: The role of intimate partner violence in Colombia
Volume 52 - Article 6    | Keywords: cohabitation, Colombia, infant health, intimate partner violence, low birthweight, partnership status

Left behind single in the partnering market? Entry into cohabiting unions by women and men with low educational attainment across regions of Europe, cohorts 1960 to 1985
Volume 51 - Article 43    | Keywords: cohabitation, education, Europe, European Social Survey, event history analysis, logistic regression, marginalization, partner selection, singlehood, union formation

Educational trends in cohort fertility by birth order: A comparison of England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland
Volume 51 - Article 36    | Keywords: birth order, cohort analysis, cross-national study, England, family size, fertility, Northern Ireland, parity, Scotland, Wales

Age-heterogamous partnerships: Prevalence and partner differences by marital status and gender composition
Volume 50 - Article 23    | Keywords: age heterogamy, assortative mating, cohabitation, marriage, same-sex couples, unions