Ruth Institute Blog

Ruth institute Advisory Board member Pat Fagan edits the Mapping America series for Family Research Council. In this month’s edition, he asks, “What increases the likelihood of a woman having two or more cohabitations in her lifetime?” Looking at two or more cohabitations is significant because this weeds out the couples who move in together right before getting married, and then staying married. All the research suggests that “serial cohabitation” is more risky than pre-marital cohabitation, and both of course, are more risky than not cohabiting at all.

So here is how to read Dr Fagan’s charts: of the women who currently attend church weekly and who grew up in an intact family, 2.8% have two or more cohabitations over the course of their lifetimes. Of the women who never attend church, and who grew up in a non-intact family, over 17% have two or more cohabitations over their lifetimes. Quite a difference in the risk factors. 

Women Who Have Had Two or More Cohabitations in Their Lifetime Are More Likely to Worship Infrequently and to Have Grown Up in Non-Intact Families

Women (aged 14-44) who grew up in married intact families and who now worship weekly are the least likely to have had two or more cohabitations in their lifetime. According to the National Survey of Family Growth, 2.8 percent of women who grew up in intact married families and worship at least weekly have had two or more cohabitations in their lifetime, followed by women who grew up in other family structures and worship at least weekly (6.7 percent), those who grew up in intact married families who never worship (8.5 percent), and those who grew up in other family structures and never worship (17.1 percent).

Examining the rate of cohabitation by structure of family of origin, 5.6 percent of women who grew up in intact married families have had two or more cohabitations in their lifetime, followed by women who grew up in intact cohabiting families (11.1 percent), those from single divorced parent families (11.6 percent), married stepfamilies (12 percent), cohabiting stepfamilies (12.9 percent), and always single parent families (13.5 percent). Overall, women raised in intact married families are only half as likely to have had two or more lifetime cohabitations as those from all other structures.

Examining the rate of cohabitation by current religious attendance, 4.1 percent of women who worship at least weekly have had two or more cohabitations in their lifetime, followed by those who attend religious services between one and three times a month (6.8 percent), those who worship less than once a month (10.6 percent), and those who never attend religious services (12.3 percent).

Find the whole story here.