Serial Cohabitation in Young Adulthood: Baby Boomers to Millennials

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12495
• Date: 01 August 2018
• Published date: 01 August 2018
• Author: Wendy D. Manning,Kasey J. Eickmeyer

K J. E  W D. M Bowling Green State University

Serial Cohabitation in Young Adulthood: Baby

Boomers to Millennials

Age at rst marriage in the United States has

consistently increased while age at cohabitation

has stalled. These trends present an opportu-

nity for serial cohabitation (multiple cohabiting

unions). The authors argue that serial cohabi-

tation must be measured among those at risk,

who have ended their rst cohabiting union.

Drawing on data from the National Survey of

Family Growth Cycle 6 (2002) and continu-

ous (2006–2013) interview cycles, the authors

nd that serial cohabitation is increasing among

women at risk. Millennials, born 1980 to 1984,

had 50% higher rates of cohabiting twice or

more after dissolving their rst cohabitation.

This increase is not driven by the composi-

tion of Millennials at risk for serial cohabi-

tation. This work demonstrates the importance

of clearly dening who is at risk for serial

cohabitation when reporting estimates as well

as continuing to examine how the associations

between sociodemographic characteristics and

serial cohabitation may shift over time.

For young adults forming relationships in

the United States, cohabitation has usurped

marriage. A majority of young adult women

interviewed in the past decade have cohabited

(73%), whereas half has married (Lamidi &

Department of Sociology and Center for Family and

Demographic Research, 005 Williams Hall, Bowling Green

State University,Bowling Green, OH 43403

(eickmek@bgsu.edu).

Key Words: cohabitation, cohort, coresidence, life course,

social trends/social change.

Manning, 2016). In most industrialized nations,

young adult women’s rst union is overwhelm-

ingly a cohabiting union, rather than a marriage,

and women are marrying later than ever (Ander-

son & Payne, 2016; Manning, Brown, & Payne,

2014; Hiekel, Liefbroer, & Poortman, 2014).

Despite the xed role of cohabitation in young

adult romantic relationships in both the United

States and Europe, however, cohabiting unions

in the United States are more likely to dissolve

than result in marriage (Guzzo, 2014; Lamidi,

Manning, & Brown, 2015). Young adults, then,

may have more opportunities to experience

a second or third cohabiting union (serial cohab-

itation) in the context of delayed marriage and

the increased risk of cohabitation dissolution.

Recent research suggests that serial cohabita-

tion has increased for young adults in Western

Europe and the United States, although there

are few recent papers on serial cohabitation in

the United States (Bukodi, 2012; Dommermuth

& Wiik, 2014; for U.S. research, see Cohen

& Manning, 2010; Lichter, Turner, & Sassler,

2010; Vespa, 2014).

This previous U.S. research, however, may

lead to skewed estimates of serial cohabita-

tion, as previous analytic populations include

women who are not technically at risk for

serial cohabitation. Serial cohabitation has been

measured among all women, never-married

women, or prior to women’s rst marriage (see

Cohen & Manning, 2010; Lichter et al., 2010).

Recent studies have measured serial cohabi-

tation among women who had ever cohabited

(Vespa, 2014). Without having a rst cohab-

iting union and dissolving this relationship,

826 Journal of Marriage and Family 80 (August 2018): 826–840

DOI:10.1111/jomf.12495