Reconceptualizing the Marital Plans of Cohabitors: Implications for Relationship Quality

• In Event: Family Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 13: Relationship Dynamics and Quality

Abstract

The meaning and role of cohabitation in the family life course has shifted in recent decades. In the past, most cohabitors had plans to marry their partners, but newer research suggests that cohabitation has become increasingly decoupled from marriage. Indeed, the share of cohabitors reporting marital plans has greatly decreased over time. This shift is important because marital intentions are associated with relationship quality. Cohabitors with plans to marry often have similar relationship quality as the married, whereas cohabitors without plans to marry tend to have poorer relationship quality than both cohabitors with marital intentions and the married. These prior studies are limited, however, in that they have relied on a simple dichotomous measure of plans to marry. A recent study by Parker (2021) demonstrated that plans to marry among cohabitors are more complicated in that some have formal plans to marry and others have informal marriage plans. Our study extends prior work by using nationally representative data from the 2013 Families and Relationships Survey to investigate relationship quality using a more nuanced measure of plans to marry, comparing married individuals, cohabitors with definite plans to marry, cohabitors with informal marriage plans, and cohabitors without plans to marry. Our results highlighted key differences in relationship quality by union type. Cohabitors with definite plans to marry had the highest relationship quality on several measures and those without marriage plans tended to have the lowest relationship quality. Notably, between cohabitors, those with definite plans to marry were happier, reported more fairness, and had fewer disagreements than cohabitors with informal marriage plans. Overall, our findings demonstrate that a dichotomous measure of plans to marry may conflate cohabitors with definite plans to marry and those with informal plans to marry, illustrating the importance of using a more nuanced measure of plans to marry.

Authors

• Matthew Wright, Appalachian State University

• Gwendolyn Zugarek, Appalachian State University

• Susan L. Brown, Bowling Green State University

• Wendy Diane Manning, Bowling Green State University