Cohabitation, marriage, divorce, and remarriage in the United States.
OBJECTIVE
This report presents national estimates of the probabilities of marital and cohabitation outcomes for women 15-44 years of age in 1995, by a wide variety of individual- and community-level characteristics. The life-table analysis in this report takes a life cycle approach to estimate the probabilities that: a woman will marry for the first time, an intact first cohabitation will make the transition to marriage, a first cohabitation will end in separation, a first marriage will end in separation or divorce, a disrupted first marriage will be followed by a new cohabitation, a separation from first marriage will result in divorce, a divorce from first marriage will be followed by remarriage, and a second marriage will end in separation or divorce.


METHODS
The life-table estimates presented here are based on a nationally representative sample of women 15-44 years of age in the United States in 1995 from the National Survey of Family Growth, Cycle 5.


RESULTS
The analyses show that various individual and community-level characteristics are related to the marital and cohabitational outcomes examined in this report. The results consistently demonstrate that the cohabitations and marriages of non-Hispanic black women are less stable than those of non-Hispanic white women. An analysis of trends over time suggests that differences by race/ethnicity are becoming more pronounced in recent years. Racial differences observed are associated with individual characteristics and with the characteristics of the communities in which the women live.
Bramlett
Matthew D
MD
Mosher
William D
WD
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D003625:Data Collection; D004243:Divorce / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015993:Life Tables; D008297:Male; D017533:Marital Status / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008393:Marriage / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D011203:Poverty / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011336:Probability; D044469:Racial Groups; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012747:Sexual Partners; D013997:Time Factors; D014481:United States