"Changing ... attitudes toward premarital sex, childbearing, and marriage have helped this shift along," writes Sharon Sassler, PhD, a sociologist at Ohio State University. Her paper appears in the recent issue of the journal Marriage and the Family.
"Indeed, today's young adults may see little reason to justify their decisions to cohabit by affirming their marriage intentions," she writes. "Serious discussions of marriage often did not occur until couples had lived together for lengthy periods, generally 1 to 2 years."
This is partly due to greater opportunities that young adults enjoy today in education, employment, and intimate relationships, she writes. And in this time of rapid social change -- economic ups and downs -- living together helps young people ride out the risks.
But if not marriage, what prompts the decision to move in? Sometimes, it's a sudden change, like employment status. He loses a job and income; he moves into her place. For others, moving in signals commitment; they already spend so much time together, why not?
"Marriage is often implicitly assumed, rightly or not, to be the ultimate goal of cohabitation," Sassler writes. Yet relatively few of these couples ever tie the knot.
Talking to the Couples
To further examine this major move, Sassler interviewed 25 college students -- most in their 20s, some in their 30s. All were heterosexual and had shared living quarters with someone for at least three months -- some up to four years.
Among the students, there were three types. The "accelerated cohabitors" said the transition from romantic involvement to living together occurred quite quickly, before they had been dating for six months. Their relationship was intense from the beginning, they spent much time together, and decided that it couldn't be casual. Looking back, few thought things had progressed too quickly.
The "tentative cohabitors" moved more slowly. They dated more than 6 months before living together and felt very uncertain about making the big move. Their relationships had progressed more slowly overall, compared to the accelerated group.