Cohabitation and Marital Stability: Quality or Commitment?

The article presents a report on marital cohabitation. Premarital cohabitation has become a stage of courtship for an increasing proportion of U.S. marriages. Social theorists and some cohabiters believed that cohabitation would improve marital quality and stability by providing a more stringent test of the relationship than offered-by traditional engagement. Explanations for this finding typically focus on the selection of individuals and couples into cohabitation. One explanation is that those who choose to cohabit rather than marry perceive themselves or the relationship as poorer risks in terms of long-term happiness and commitment. A second selectivity explanation is that cohabiters are less committed to the institution of marriage, and therefore more likely than noncohabiters to dissolve a problematic marriage. A third explanation is that cohabiters define marriage in more individual than couple terms, so that cohabiters view marital quality as more central to the relationship's stability than noncohabiters.