Cohabitation and Contraceptive Use in the United States: A Focus on Race and Ethnicity

While cohabitation has been increasing and a growing context to have and raise children, there has been little attention to one of the key determinants of fertility and effective contraceptive use. Drawing data from the 2013–2015 National Survey of Family Growth (N = 2285), we provide a contemporary portrait of contraceptive use among cohabiting American women. Specifically, we were guided by two main goals. First, we compared cohabiting and married women’s contraceptive use patterns and the variation by race and ethnicity. Second, we focused solely on cohabiting unions; and examined the racial and ethnic variation among cohabiting women. We found that cohabiting women are more likely to use effective methods of contraception than married women. Nonetheless, our findings point to the fact that white cohabiting women are driving the higher patterns of contraceptive use among cohabiting women. Indeed, a further examination of the variation among women in cohabiting relationships shows that black cohabitors are less likely to use effective contraception in cohabiting relationships, compared to whites. Our findings contribute to understanding the reproductive behaviors among a growing set of couples, cohabitors.