PREMARITAL COHABITATION AND MARITAL INSTABILITY - A TEST OF THE UNCONVENTIONALITY HYPOTHESIS

This study examines whether the greater instability of marriages begun by premarital cohabitation can be accounted for by cohabitors' greater unconventionality in family ideology. The hypothesis was largely unsupported. Although family attitudes and beliefs tend to predict the attractiveness of a cohabiting lifestyle, they do not account for differences between cohabitors and noncohabitors in instability. Moreover, controlling for background differences, only serial cohabitation is associated with greater instability among intact first marriages of up to 10 years duration.