Stability and outcome of interracial cohabitation before and after transitions to marriage

Abstract

Background: Barriers to intermarriage are more formidable than barriers to interracial cohabitation. Relative to same-race couples, a higher share of interracial couples cohabits with their nonmarital partners. This raises the question: Does the social significance of cohabitation differ for interracial and same-race couples? Objective: We compared the stability and outcome of first cohabitations prior to any marriage and the association between premarital cohabitation and subsequent marriage by couples' joint race/ethnicity. Methods: Using data from the 2002 and 2006-2019 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), we estimated discrete-time event history models to predict differences in the stability of cohabitations and subsequent marriages by couples' joint race/ethnicity. Results: The stability and outcomes of White-Black cohabitations were similar to those of same-race Black cohabitations, whereas the stability of White-Hispanic cohabitations fell in between those of their same-race White and Hispanic counterparts. Premarital cohabitation was generally positively associated with higher odds of marital dissolution, but it was negatively associated with the odds of marital dissolution for White-Black couples. Contribution: Considerable heterogeneity exists in the social significance of interracial cohabitation. The challenges of crossing racial barriers in union formation may contribute to distinct union trajectories for interracial couples.

Keywords

• interracial unions
• marital dissolution
• premarital cohabitation
• race/ethnicity