Does Premarital Cohabitation Predict Subsequent Marital Stability and Marital Quality? A Meta‐Analysis

Abstract

Does Premarital Cohabitation Predict SubsequentMarital Stability and Marital Quality?A Meta-Analysis Cohabitation with a romantic partner has become common in recent decades. This metaanalysis examined the link between premarital cohabitation and marital stability ( k = 16) and marital quality ( k = 12). Cohabitation had a significant negative association with both marital stability and marital quality. The negative predictive effect on marital stability, however, did not remain when only cohabitation with the eventual marital partner was analyzed, suggesting that these cohabitors may attach more long-term meaning to living together. Moderator analyses demonstrated that effects of cohabitation have remained consistent over time, despite the fact that cohabitation has become more normative.Although premarital cohabitation may have been viewed as scandalous a few decades ago, it has become much more socially acceptable for individuals in close relationships. For instance, about 500,000 individuals were living with their romantic partner in 1970 (Brown, 2004b). Only 30 years later, however, about 10 times as many people (4.9 million) were living with Department of Psychology, SUNY Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY 11794 (anita.jose@sunysb.edu).

The educational gradient in marital disruption: A meta-analysis of European research findings

“…Meta-analysis has increasingly been employed in the social sciences (Vemer et al 1989;Amato and Keith 1991;Twenge et al 2003;Waldforf and Pillsung 2005;Weichselbaumer and Winter-Ebmer 2005;Wagner and Weiss 2006;Proulx et al 2007;Matysiak and Vignoli 2008;Jose et al 2010). This…”

Long-Term Changes in Attitudes Toward Premarital Sex in the United States: Reexamining the Role of Cohort Replacement

“…29-30). These changes have been associated with increased cohabitation (Goodwin, Mosher, & Chandra, 2010;Lichter, Turner, & Sassler, 2009), which has been associated with higher divorce rates and more egalitarian attitudes (Jose, O'Leary, & Moyer, 2010;Smock, 2000).…”

Conjugality

“…In these disciplines, the questions examined are often comparative and quantitative. Scholarship attends to whether cohabitants and certified spouses organize the division of their household labor differently (Baxter, Haynes, and Hewitt 2010); are more or less committed or sexually faithful to each other (Rhoades et al 2006;Jamieson et al 2002;Lewis, Datta, and Sarre 1999); examine the well-being of partners to and/or children born in each situation (Soons and Kalmijn 2009;Nilsson, Lund, and Avlund 2008;Scafato et al 2008); compare the average duration of each type of relationship and their dissolution (Jose, O'Leary, and Moyer 2010;Reinhold 2010;Stanley et al 2010); and so on. These questions no doubt have some useful applications: they speak to people's experience of and rationales for the particular conjugal arrangements they pursue.…”