Factors influencing the entrance into cohabiting unions

While researchers have examined the demographic characteristics of cohabiting unions and cohabitors, less attention has been paid to why people cohabit. Chapter One takes a life course approach to the study of union formation, examining what other events are occurring at the time a cohabiting union is formed. Both cohabitations and marriages are often formed around the same time as at least one other life course event, with approximately 40% and 45%, respectively, experiencing at least one other event within about two months. Though a greater proportion of marriages occur near the timing of another event, cohabitation is associated with more types of events. Events associated with cohabitation were not always related to marriage, and some events, namely a pregnancy and a move from the parental home, influenced the choice between marriage and cohabitation. Chapter Two extends marriage market arguments to the formation of cohabiting unions and the choice between union types among women. It asks whether cohabiting unions are influenced by the sex ratio and whether an unfavorable sex ratio discourages both cohabitation and marriage equally. The results suggest cohabitation and marriage are not substitutable, as increases in the sex ratio are associated with a greater likelihood of marriage over cohabiting or remaining single. A number of individual, time-varying factors were also included. While the sex ratio was significant, the magnitude and effect of the individual-level factors was much greater, implying that whether an individual is ‘ready’ to form a union has a greater impact on union formation than aggregate factors. Finally, Chapter Three adopts a psychosocial approach to cohabitation and marriage, examining how attitudes and religiosity influence the choice between union types and how union types influence attitudes and religiosity. More religious persons and those with conservative family values are more likely to marry than cohabit.{09}Net of earlier attitudes, those who married directly become more conservative and more religious, while cohabitors who do not marry become less religious and less conservative. Cohabitation followed by marriage does not significantly affect attitudes or religiosity.