Volume 23 - Article 31 | Pages 879–904
Premarital cohabitation and divorce: Support for the "Trial Marriage" Theory?
By Hill Kulu, Paul Boyle
Abstract
A number of studies show that premarital cohabitation is associated with an increased risk of subsequent marital dissolution. Some argue that this is a consequence of selection effects and that once these are controlled for premarital cohabitation has no effect on dissolution. We examine the effect of premarital cohabitation on subsequent marital dissolution by using rich retrospective life-history data from Austria. We model union formation and dissolution jointly to control for unobserved selectivity of cohabiters and non-cohabiters. Our results show that those who cohabit prior to marriage have a higher risk of marital dissolution. However, once observed and unobserved characteristics are controlled for, the risks of marital dissolution for those who cohabit prior to marriage are significantly lower than for those who marry directly. The finding that premarital cohabitation decreases the risk of marital separation provides support for the "trial marriage" theory.
Author’s Affiliation
- Hill Kulu - University of St Andrews, United Kingdom EMAIL
- Paul Boyle - University of St Andrews, United Kingdom EMAIL
Other articles by the same author/authors in Demographic Research
High Suburban Fertility: Evidence from Four Northern European Countries
Volume 21 - Article 31
Analysing migrant fertility using machine learning techniques: An application of random survival forest to longitudinal data from France
Volume 53 - Article 21
The partnership, fertility, and employment trajectories of immigrants in the United Kingdom: An intersectional life course approach using three-channel sequence analysis
Volume 53 - Article 10
Fertility differences across immigrant generations in the United Kingdom
Volume 52 - Article 33
The changing inter-relationship between partnership dynamics and fertility trends in Europe and the United States: A review
Volume 52 - Article 7
Educational trends in cohort fertility by birth order: A comparison of England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland
Volume 51 - Article 36
Union formation and fertility amongst immigrants from Pakistan and their descendants in the United Kingdom: A multichannel sequence analysis
Volume 48 - Article 10
Separation, divorce, and housing tenure: A cross-country comparison
Volume 41 - Article 39
Homeownership after separation: A longitudinal analysis of Finnish register data
Volume 41 - Article 29
Union dissolution and housing trajectories in Britain
Volume 41 - Article 7
A decade of life-course research on fertility of immigrants and their descendants in Europe
Volume 40 - Article 46
Co-ethnic marriage versus intermarriage among immigrants
and their descendants: A comparison across seven European countries using event-history analysis
Volume 39 - Article 17
Social policies, separation, and second birth spacing in Western Europe
Volume 37 - Article 37
Why does fertility remain high among certain UK-born ethnic minority women?
Volume 35 - Article 49
Introduction to research on immigrant and ethnic minority families in Europe
Volume 35 - Article 2
Union formation and dissolution among immigrants and their descendants in the United Kingdom
Volume 33 - Article 10
Migration and union dissolution in a changing socio-economic context: The case of Russia
Volume 17 - Article 27
Fertility differences by housing type: The effect of housing conditions or of selective moves?
Volume 17 - Article 26
Family change and migration in the life course: An introduction
Volume 17 - Article 19
Most recent similar articles in Demographic Research
The partnership context of first parenthood – and how it varies by parental class and birth cohort in the United Kingdom
Volume 53 - Article 16
| Keywords:
cohabitation,
cohort analysis,
event history,
event history analysis,
family formation,
intergenerational inequality,
marriage,
parental socio-economic status,
parenthood,
single parenthood,
United Kingdom
Fertility differences across immigrant generations in the United Kingdom
Volume 52 - Article 33
| Keywords:
event history analysis,
fertility,
immigrant,
second generation,
United Kingdom
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
Religion and union dissolution: Effects of couple and municipal religiosity on divorce and separation
Volume 49 - Article 20
| Keywords:
couples,
cross-level effects,
religion,
union dissolution
A register-based account of period trends in union prevalence, entries, and exits by educational level for men and women in Finland
Volume 48 - Article 14
| Keywords:
cohabitation,
divorce,
education,
Finland,
marriage,
register data,
trends,
union dissolution
Cited References: 79
Download to Citation Manager
PubMed
Google Scholar