# Presentation: 251169

## What are the Choices for Low-Income Families:Cohabitation, Marriage and Remaining Single 

- Natasha J. Cabrera
- University of Maryland

## Goals for this presentation

- Is cohabitation a threat to marriage?
- What are the options for low-income single women?
- How realistic and attractive is marriage?
- Does cohabiting lead to poor outcomes?

## Background

- 4.9 million cohabiting households; 56 percent of first unions are preceded by cohabitation
- Cohabitation and marriage rates vary by SES
- As rates of cohabitation increase – what are the implications for family structure and marriage?
- Cohabitation among low-income families may be a threat to marriage
- Whether cohabitation threatens marriage must be examined within a range of options that include cohabitation, marriage and remaining single

**Notes:**
cohabitation is negatively correlated with education and income - economic well being powerful predictor of marriage

## How is cohabitation a threat to marriage? 

- Cohabitation can threaten marriage by:
- reducing the number of individuals who marry
- decreasing the stability afforded by marriage.

##  Does cohabitation reduce the number marrying?

- When more people choose to cohabit there are fewer people choosing to marry
- This assumes that low-income couples
- decide to form a union and
- then decide what type on available choices (cohabit or marry)
- If this assumption is correct, then cohabitation decreases marriage rates; if cohabitation was eliminated, then marrying would increase

**Notes:**
(see next slide)

## Figure 1.  Union Formation: Marriage Versus Cohabitation

## Considering other alternatives

- Some data suggest that couples maybe faced with a three-way decision-- do they remain single, marry, or cohabit?
- Hence the decision may  not between marriage and cohabitation,  but rather among remaining single, cohabiting, or marrying
- For low-income couples marriage maybe an *unrealistic* option or an *unattractive* option

## Figure 2:  Union Formation?  

##   Marriage-- An Unrealistic Option 

- Couples across SES  consider economic stability (including employment) to be an important prerequisite to marriage
- Recent qualitative data (Edin, 2000) suggest
- Low income women are realistic about the viability of marrying their children’s father (poorly educated, unsteady employment)
- Prefer to cohabit or live separately
- One African American mother living in Camden, New Jersey told Edin (2000; pp. 5) and her colleagues:
*You can't get married and go on living with your mother.  That's just like playing house.  She expects your husband to be able to provide for you and if he can't, what he doing marrying you in the first place! *

**Notes:**
marriage "is the foundation of a successful society" and "is an essential institution that promotes the interests of children" (Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity and Reconciliation Act of 1996, section 101).
Couples across SES  consider economic stability (including employment) to be an important prerequisite to marriage (Wilson 1986,  Edin 2000, Anderson's (1990)  Sullivan's (1989)  

## Marriage-- An Unrealistic Option

- From qualitative data we learn that
- Value of marriage or desire to marriage may not have declined;
- Women want to become “respectable”
- Women prefer to postpone marriage
- As one young woman living in Charleston, South Carolina:
- I want to get married.  I've always wanted to get married.  [My baby's father], he is doing pretty good, but I am not going to marry him until we get some land.  [We'll] start off with a trailor, live in that for about 10 years, and then build a dream house.  But I am not going to get married and pay rent to someone else.  When we save up enough money to [buy] an acre of land and [can finance] a trailer, then we'll marry (Edin, 2000, pp. 8).
- Believe in the seriousness of the marriage commitment and that it should last forever
- Expressed strong moral objections to marrying a man whose economic situation would increase their chances of divorce.
- Therefore, when examining marriage, we need to consider women’s   economic independence and also focus on men’s economic dependence

##  Marriage-- An Unattractive Option 

- For others, especially those married in the past, marriage may be an unattractive option because of power and trust issues
- Single women say that living with a man or marrying means they are no longer  "in charge" or "in control" and spend less time with their children
- “Culture of gender distrust"
- heightened among couples who experience chronic economic instability
- women believe that men just could not be faithful.
-  As one black mother said,
- I would like to find a nice man to marry, but I know that men cannot be trusted.  That's why I treat them the way I do-- like the dogs they are.  I think that all men will cheat, regardless of how much he loves her (pp. 12).

**Notes:**
What we don’t know exactly is whether men also feel that women are distrustful... preliminary data suggest that women also cheat and break promises

## Remaining Single-- Not Marrying and Not Cohabiting

- If marriage or cohabitation are not realistic (lack of eligible men) or attractive (power and trust issues) options, many women choose to remain single
- Living with an unemployed man brings economic hardship and reduces her prospects of meeting a suitable (economically stable) man
- As one African American mother told Edin (2000, pp. 6):
- I've been with the baby's father for almost 10 years, since high school graduation.  He's talking marriage, but what I'm trying to do now is get rid of him.  He just lost his job.  I can do bad by myself, I don't need no one helping me [do bad].  I want somebody better, somebody [who can bring home] a regular paycheck.  [So] I'm trying to get rid of him right now.
- Women had a "pay and stay" rule.  When a man lost his job, he lost his right to cohabit.
- These women believe that among the alternatives available to them, remaining single and not cohabiting is the best choice because it cost them less and it increases the chances of forming a relationship with an alternative man

## Summary

- Because of economic conditions and lack of partner trust, marriage may be an unrealistic option for some women.  At the same time, the lack of prospective economic security, which makes marriage and cohabitation unattractive, may also increase the benefits to remaining single.
- Because of the unavailability of marriage, the unattractiveness of marriage and cohabitation, and the importance of deciding to remain living alone, it does not appear that cohabitation has posed a serious threat to marriage for this economic group.

## Does Cohabitation Result in Poorer Outcomes for Families and Children?

- Nonmarital Increase in non-marital births are better explained by changes in marital behavior than by changes in fertility
- Rates of marriage at child’s birth has decreased  and rates  of non-marital childbearing have increased dramatically
- Less than half of the unmarried parents in the U.S. are cohabiting at time of child’s birth; cohabitation can lead to instability resulting in poorer outcomes
- Is cohabitation worse than what?  If women  are choosing to remain single, then is cohabitation better than not cohabiting?
- These results indicate that families hold marriage in high esteem and no not appear to consider cohabitation the end but rather the beginning of a more serious relationship.

**Notes:**
In examining this issue, we focus on nonmarital childbearing
(a third of all births in the U.S. today occur outside of marriage and the proportions are even higher among minority populations-- 69 percent of African American births were non-marital in 1999 (Ventura & Bachrach, 2000).  
(a third of all births in the U.S. today occur outside of marriage and the proportions are even higher among minority populations-- 69 percent of African American births were non-marital in 1999 (Ventura & Bachrach, 2000).  
(a third of all births in the U.S. today occur outside of marriage and the proportions are even higher among minority populations-- 69 percent of African American births were non-marital in 1999 (Ventura & Bachrach, 2000).

## Does Cohabitation...

- Data indicate that
- Most unmarried parents are committed to one another and have high hopes of raising their child together (FF)
- Nearly 82 percent of parents in FF were romantically involved with each other at the time of their child's birth
- Couples reporting a positive relationship are more likely to have fathers involved in their children’s lives (EHS); cohabitors more than non cohabitors (FF)
- Ethnic variations in nonresident father involvement suggest that AA nonresident fathers are more likely than others to be in a relationship with child’s mother and for AA mothers to partner less

## What does it mean for children? 

- Studies have found that mother and father living together at the time of the birth is an important positive predictor of father involvement
- Most fathers were prenatally involved (EHS, FF) and were are more likely to have some contact with their child 3 years out (EHS)
- The desire to marry the mother and to stay involved in the child’s life shown by cohabiting parents at the time of the birth, may result in more positive mother-father relationships and thereby result in more involved non-resident fathers
- But data on children’s outcomes are limited

## Conclusion

- Is cohabitation posing a threat to marriage?
- When we consider all the choices (marriage, cohabitation, and remaining single)
- available to low income families, the answer is no
- Given mothers’ partners economic stability and issues of power and trust among couples, cohabiting couples would remain single if cohabitation were not an option
- Cohabitation or living alone appear the most realistic choices available to poor families.
- When compared to remaining single, cohabitation may have some benefits for parents and children