“Living Together Without Being Married”: Perceptions of Female Adolescents in the Mexico-United States Border Region

Abstract

This is a study of the Mexico-United States Border female youth’s perceptions about “living together without being married” as an alternative in the process of family formation and as a new modality of intimate relationships of youth in their transition to adulthood. We analyze the case of working class females between 15-18 years old residing in Tijuana, Mexico, and in San Diego County, California. This comparative analysis focuses on individual, cultural, gender, institutional, and community factors shaping youth perceptions between two groups of Mexican-origin youth residing on different sides of the border but sharing the same family culture roots. The study uses information from fifteen focus groups conducted with female students from two of the largest public high schools in Tijuana and three public high schools in San Diego. Among the findings, we observe interesting differences between these two groups of young women. Latino adolescents in San Diego prefer to use the concept of cohabitation when referring to the idea of “living together without being married.” This type of relationship forms part of the process of growing up. Tijuana girls, however, prefer to use the concept of consensual union. This term mixes the traditional Mexican consensual union with some traces of the modern concept for cohabitation. The traditional meaning tends to dominate the “idea of living together without being married” among Tijuana girls.