Men, Women Have Different Reasons for Cohabitation

Scientists at the University of Michigan (UM) have found in a new study that men and women have different views about living together, as well as different motives for doing so.

Additionally, the two genders also expressed different concerns about cohabitation, the scientists learned. The study was conducted because, at this point in time, more couples are living together than ever before, authors write in the background to their new paper.

In the survey, some 192 young people, no one older than 30, were asked to participate in in-depth personal interviews and focus group sessions. During these meetings, the researchers asked them highly-personal questions about why they moved in together with their couple partners.

Of the participants, half were female, and there were equal numbers of White, Black and Hispanic individuals. During the discussions, experts touched subjects such as reasons not to cohabit.

They also asked about the positive and negative aspects of cohabitation, the kinds of changes that might occur when a couple first moves in together, and of the reasons couples might decide to move in together rather than date or marry.

“Men and women expressed very different expectations for cohabiting relationships,” explains the director of the University of Michigan Population Studies Center (PSC), sociologist Pamela Smock.

“We found that responses varied by gender much more than they did by race or ethnicity, suggesting a substantial gender gap in the perceived role of cohabitation in the union formation process,” she adds.

The PSC is a part of the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR). University of California Hastings College of the Law expert Penelope Huang was also involved in the research, as were experts from the Bowling Green State University and the East Connecticut State University.

The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development funded the new research effort with a series of grants, the authors report.

The chief reasons why people chose to live with each other include spending more time with their partners, sharing financial burdens with them, but also as a test of their compatibility.

“Ultimately, the clearest message was that living together is very much taken for granted. As a result, the upward climb in the proportion of young adults who cohabit is likely to continue for some time,” Smock concludes.