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Young Adulthood Relationships in an Era of Uncertainty: A Case for Cohabitation

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  • Wendy D. Manning

    (Bowling Green State University)

Abstract

The young adulthood years are demographically dense. Dr. Ronald Rindfuss made this claim when he was Population Association of America (PAA) president in 1991 (Rindfuss 1991), and this conclusion holds today. I offer both an update of his work by including Millennials and a new view on young adulthood by focusing on an increasingly common experience: cohabitation. I believe we need to move away from our marriage-centric lens of young adulthood and embrace the complexity that cohabitation offers. The cohabitation boom is continuing with no evidence of a slowdown. Young adults are experiencing complex relationship biographies, and social science research is struggling to keep pace. Increasingly, there is a decoupling of cohabitation and marriage, suggesting new ways of framing our understanding of relationships in young adulthood. As a field, we can do better to ensure that our theories, methods, and data collections better reflect the new relationship reality faced by young adults.

Suggested Citation

  • Wendy D. Manning, 2020. "Young Adulthood Relationships in an Era of Uncertainty: A Case for Cohabitation," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(3), pages 799-819, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:demogr:v:57:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s13524-020-00881-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s13524-020-00881-9
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Layla Van den Berg & Dimitri Mortelmans, 2022. "Endogamy and relationship dissolution: Does unmarried cohabitation matter?," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 47(17), pages 489-528.
    2. Elena Bastianelli & Raffaele Guetto & Daniele Vignoli, 2023. "The changing socioeconomic gradient in the dissolution of marriage and cohabitation: Evidence from a latecomer of the Second Demographic Transition," Econometrics Working Papers Archive 2023_03, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti".
    3. Elena Bastianelli & Daniele Vignoli, 2022. "The Gendered Relationship Between (Old and New Forms of) Employment Instability and Union Dissolution," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(3), pages 1021-1048, June.
    4. Elena Bastianelli & Daniele Vignoli, 2021. "Instability of Employment Careers and Union Dissolution. A Complex Micro-level Relation," Econometrics Working Papers Archive 2021_04, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Statistica, Informatica, Applicazioni "G. Parenti".
    5. Haoming Song, 2022. "Women’s Divergent Union Transitions After Marital Dissolution in the United States," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(3), pages 953-980, June.
    6. Kasey J. Eickmeyer & Wendy D. Manning & Monica A. Longmore & Peggy C. Giordano, 2023. "Exploring the Married-Cohabiting Income Pooling Gap Among Young Adults," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 990-1006, December.
    7. Jepsen, Christopher & Jepsen, Lisa, 2022. "Convergence over time or not? U.S. wages by sexual orientation, 2000–2019," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).

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