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Sociology 412 Martin Lecture 5: February 10, 2009

What will convince people that marriage is better than cohabitation?. 1.) Mechanism: a reasonable explanation for why cohabitation should cause the unfavorable outcome.2.) Association between cohabitation and an unfavorable outcome.3.) Time order: the unfavorable pattern did not precede coh

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Sociology 412 Martin Lecture 5: February 10, 2009

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    1. Sociology 412 (Martin) Lecture 5: February 10, 2009 The case for promoting marriage over cohabitation Money Housework Domestic violence Sex Emotional Well-Being Parenting Divorce Mortality Rates

    2. What will convince people that marriage is better than cohabitation? 1.) Mechanism: a reasonable explanation for why cohabitation should cause the unfavorable outcome. 2.) Association between cohabitation and an unfavorable outcome. 3.) Time order: the unfavorable pattern did not precede cohabitation. 4.) Consideration of other factors that might be associated with both cohabitation and the unfavorable outcome.

    3. Mechanisms that might put cohabiting couples at a disadvantage, compared to married couples. (Waite, 2000) Cohabiting couples have economic disadvantages because their relationship is less permanent than marriage Reduced specialization (in gender roles) Reduced investment in the relationship Reduced economies of scale Cohabiting couples receive less support from each other and from outside sources. A culture of self reliance reduces mutual support Cohabitation distances couples from religious institutions Families and social institutions are less likely to provide support because the details of the relationship are unclear.

    4. Cohabitation, Work, and Wealth Median incomes for nonhispanic whites, 1998: Married $ 34,107 (men) $ 13,346 (women) Cohabiting $ 24,000 (men) $ 15,385 (women) Earnings premium for white men of the same education and age: Married (versus single) 6.3 % Cohabiting (versus single) 2.9 % Mean wealth of families with children (Hao 1996): Married $ 79,690 (intact) $ 77,610 (step) Cohabiting $ 12,180 Single mother $ 12,740

    5. Race and sex differences in the wage premium of marriage Source: Daniel (1995)

    6. Cohabitation and Housework Average hours per week spent doing housework: Married 18 hours (men) 37 hours (women) Cohabiting 19 hours (men) 31 hours (women) When one controls for presence of children, the gender gap shrinks to 14 hours for married couples and 10 hours for cohabiting couples. Thus, cohabitation appears to offer some advantage in housework for women. There is a possible counterargument: Cohabiting women don’t share husband’s earnings, so their extra housework is uncompensated.

    7. Cohabitation and Domestic Violence Percent of married and cohabiting households who say that arguments between them became violent in the past year : Engaged Not Engaged Type of Violence Married Cohabiting Cohabiting Male-to-female 3.6 % 4.7 % 9.9 % Female-to-male 3.2 % 3.4 % 7.6 % (NSFH 1987-88: Predicted probabilities net of age, race, and education) Further evidence: Of engaged people who reported physical violence before marriage, 54% did not report physical violence a year later. What do you think?

    8. Cohabitation and Sexual Activity Times per month respondent reported making love Married 6 ½ Cohabiting 7 ½ Percent of respondents who say that sex with their partner is “extremely satisfying emotionally” Married 50% (men) 42% (women) Cohabiting 37% (men) 39% (women) Percent of women with a secondary sex partner Married 4 % Cohabiting 20 % Dating 18 %

    9. Cohabitation and Emotional Well-Being Group Level of depression Satisfaction with Life Married women low high Cohabiting women: with children high low no children, long-term high low no children, short-term low high Additional evidence: Cohabiting women are not more depressed before the start of the cohabiting union (Brown 1998) How is this additional evidence compelling? How is it not?

    10. Cohabitation and Parenting Child Outcomes by Living Status of Parents: Group Grades Emotional Development, Control over Behavior Married, intact family high good Cohabiting low poor Married, step family low poor Single parent low poor Possible explanation: cohabitation does not impose obligations on the partner to help a single parent, either financially or instrumentally.

    11. Premarital Cohabitation and Divorce Life Table Estimates of the Cumulative Proportion of Marriages Disrupted, by Premarital Cohabitation Status Months since Women Men marriage Cohabit No Cohabit Cohabit No Cohabit 24 .07 .07 .07 .05 48 .14 .13 .15 .12 72 .20 .19 .22 .18 96 .29 .25 .30 .21 120 .35 .29 .38 .24 (Why the differences between men and women?)

    12. Premarital Cohabitation and Divorce Differences in divorce rates apparently disappear when one controls for other factors that predict who will cohabit before marriage. Waite offers offsetting interpretations for why there is no net effect of premarital cohabitation on divorce. 1.) Premarital cohabitation may allow individuals to test whether a marriage is a good “fit”. 2.) However, cohabitation also causes attitudes to change in ways that are inimical to long-term commitment.

    13. Summary: Waite’s Argument for Marriage over Cohabitation There are plausible reasons to expect cohabitation to produce poorer outcomes than marriage. Cohabiting couples and especially their children have numerous disadvantages when compared to married couples. In each case, it is possible that reverse causation explains part or all of the difference between married and cohabiting couples. However, what is the chance that reverse causation is responsible for every single difference?

    14. Additional evidence for a benefit of marriage: Mortality, for men Source: Lillard and Waite 1995

    15. Mortality, for women

    16. The final page. 1.) Outline the mechanisms that might explain why cohabitation often has less desirable outcomes than marriage, according to Waite. 2.) Describe the evidence that cohabiting couples tend to have less specialized gender roles than married couples. 3.) Discuss the evidence for a relationship between cohabitation and domestic violence. 4.) Discuss the evidence for a relationship between cohabitation and poor emotional well-being. 5.) What is Waite’s interpretation of the relationship between premarital cohabitation and the risk of divorce? 6.) Provide evidence that in a comparison between marriage and cohabitation, men have more to gain from marriage than women. 7.) Provide evidence that in a comparison between marriage and cohabitation, women have more to gain from marriage than men. 8.) Discuss the strength of the evidence for a benefit to marriage, based on mortality rates for married, divorced, widowed, and never-married men.

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