Citation
Mernitz, Sara E. (2016). Long-term Cohabitation: Prevalence, Predictors, and Mental Health Outcomes.
Abstract
The changing landscape of young adult cohabitation has important implications for family formation, childrearing, and individual health and wellbeing. As the social norms surrounding cohabitation have changed over time, more and more young adults enter cohabitation and cohabitation is growing more diverse. Young adults’ motivation for cohabiting, length of their union, and number of cohabiting partners contributes to this diversity. Yet young adult long-term cohabitation remains understudied. This dissertation study focuses on young adult long-term cohabitation by identifying the changing prevalence of long-term cohabitation over time, the barriers to transitioning out of cohabitation and long-term cohabitation, and the implications of these long-term unions for young adult mental health. This dissertation study enhances scholarship on cohabitation by examining long-term cohabitation during a critical period in the life course, young adulthood, a time when these early relationships may alter young adults’ future relationship and union trajectories. Further, a critical developmental task during these years is establishing intimacy within romantic unions, suggesting that cohabitation during this period is more important than at any other developmental stage. I use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79), the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97), and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) to examine the prevalence of long-term cohabitation over time, identify variables contributing to transitions out of cohabitation and long-term cohabitation, and the mental health implications of young adult long-term cohabitation. These data are well-suited for this study as all are nationally-representative longitudinal studies containing high-quality cohabitation data. In Chapter 1, I provide a brief introduction highlighting important changes in young adult cohabitation over time, including changes in the prevalence of long-term cohabitation, young adults’ transitions out of cohabitation, and the implications of long-term cohabitation for young adult mental health. In Chapter 2, I identify the changing patterns of cohabitation over time between young adults cohabiting in the 1980s and those cohabiting in the 2000s. In Chapter 3, I examine relationship-specific or socioeconomic barriers that dissuade young adults from transitioning out of cohabitation via marriage or cohabitation dissolution. In Chapter 4, I highlight the change in mental health from long-term cohabitation compared to time spent in single or time spent in a short-term cohabitation. In Chapter 5, I close with a discussion about the broad conclusions and the implications of this research for the study of young adult cohabitation.
URL
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1468949233Keyword(s)
cohabitation transition to adulthood family demography mental health
Reference Type
Thesis/Dissertation
Book Title
Human Development and Family Science
Author(s)
Mernitz, Sara E.
Year Published
2016
Volume Number
Ph.D.
Publisher
The Ohio State University
Reference ID
7936
