The Relationship of Cohabitation and Mental Health: A Study of a Young Adult Cohort

Abstract

Despite the growing importance of and interest in as a living arrangement, little is known about the relationship between and mental health. This research tests how the mental health of cohabitors compares with that of unmarried and of married persons. It uses a cohort of unmarried young adults who were sampled when they were 18, 21, or 24 years old and resampled 7 years later when they were 25, 28, or 31 years old. We compare the mental health of cohabitors with the unmarried and married after controlling for premarital levels of mental health and conventionality. The results of multivariate analyses indicate no differences between cohabitors and others in levels of depression. Cohabiting men, however, report significantly more alcohol problems than both married and single men, and cohabiting women report more alcohol problems than married women. In general, the results indicate that is unrelated to depression but is associated with alcohol problems for men. Key Words: alcohol problems. marital status, mental health. The beneficial aspects of intimate relationships on health and well-being are well documented. People who maintain close social relationships with others are happier, live longer, have fewer mental and physical illnesses, and have lower levels of substance abuse than those who are socially isolated (e.g., Berkman & Syme, 1979; Brown & Harris, 1978; House, Landis, & Umberson, 1988). Most adults have traditionally found their major source of intimacy through marriage. Compared with people who remain unmarried, the married have less distress, mental illness, alcoholism, and drug abuse, as well as less morbidity and mortality (e.g., Bloom, Asher, & White, 1978; Horwitz, White, & Howell-White, 1996a; Ross, Mirowsky, & Goldstein, 1990; Umberson, 1987; Waite, 1995). In addition to a stable, intimate relationship, a number of factors including greater social integration, social support, social control over health-threatening behaviors, and economic wellbeing, appear to account for the mental health benefits of marriage. Over the past 25 years, has become a major alternative to marriage in the United States. Although only 11% of persons who married between 1965-1974 cohabited before marriage, 44% of those who married between 1980-1984 had previously cohabited (Bumpass & Sweet, 1989). Nearly a quarter of unmarried persons between ages 25 and 34 currently are cohabiting (Waite, 1995). Furthermore, it is likely that a majority of people now cohabit before marriage (Cherlin, 1992). The importance of has led Linda Waite to state: Any discussion of marriage in American society today must address the issue of cohabitation (1995, p. 485). Given the increasing importance of as an alternative to marriage, a central question is whether or not offers the same mental health benefits as marriage. In contrast to the large literature on marriage and mental health, there is little research that examines the impact of on mental health. Comparing the mental health of cohabitors with that of married and unmarried people can provide some insight into the mental health consequences of various types of social relationships. Nevertheless, despite the growing amount of research on (e.g., Axinn & Thornton, 1992, 1993; Bennett, Blanc, & Bloom, 1988; Booth & Johnson, 1988; Brown & Booth, 1996; Hall & Zhao, 1995; Rindfuss & VandenHeuvel, 1990; Teachman & Polonko, 1990; Thomson & Colella, 1992), we do not know whether cohabitors attain the same mental health benefits as the married. One view of how the mental health of cohabitors compares with the mental health of married and unmarried people is that because has some, but not all, of the characteristics of marriage, it has some, but not all, of the mental health benefits (Kurdek, 1991; Ross, 1995; Waite, 1995). …