Family Facts: Social Science Research on Family, Society & Religion
| Does cohabitation provide the same stability as marriage? Using data on 800 young adults, a 2003 study found that cohabiting relationships were less enduring during their early years than marriages. During the first year of cohabitation, couples were eight times more likely to separate due to relationship conflicts than married couples. In the second year, cohabiting couples were nearly four times more likely to separate, and they were three times more likely to separate in the third year. Overall, cohabiting couples’ rate of separation was five times that of married couples. Following a separation, cohabiting couples were less likely than married couples to reconcile; cohabiting couples’ rate of reconciliation was a third of that of married couples. Read this finding The Heritage Foundation's familyfacts.org catalogs social science findings on the family, society and religion gleaned from peer-reviewed journals, books and government surveys. Serving policymakers, journalists, scholars and the general public, familyfacts.org makes social science research easily accessible to the non-specialist. |
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Findings on the Stability of Cohabiting Relationships:
 Among married women, those who had cohabited prior to marriage were more likely to undergo separation and divorce...(more) Among married couples, those who had cohabited before marriage were more likely to separate and less likely to reconcile after a separation than those who did not...(more) Family Research Experts:
Pat Fagan William H. G. FitzGerald Research Fellow in Family and Cultural Issues Christine Kim Policy Analyst, Domestic Policy Studies Jennifer Marshall Director, Domestic Policy Studies For Interviews call Media Relations at (202) 675-1761 |
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Resources
Events:Religious Practice and Civic Life: What the Research Says October 4, 2007 |