The Reproductive Context of Cohabitation in the United States: Recent Change and Variation in Contraceptive Use
- 29 September 2010
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Journal of Marriage and Family
- Vol. 72 (5) , 1155-1170
Abstract
Drawing on data from 2 waves of the National Survey of Family Growth (N = 11,065), the current research addressed 2 overarching questions about the reproductive context of cohabitation in the United States. First, did patterns of contraceptive use among cohabitors change during the last 2 decades of the 20th century? Second, did patterns of contraceptive use among cohabiting women tend to vary by education or race/ethnicity? Results point to a growing resemblance between never‐married cohabiting women and those in first marriages in the likelihood of using a “very effective” contraceptive method and suggest that cohabitation is most “marriage like” with respect to reproductive behavior among the least educated.Keywords
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