Cohabitation and Divorce in Canada: Testing the Selectivity Hypothesis

Abstract

Findings from various countries indicate that premarital cohabitation is linked to a higher risk of first marriage dissolution. A number of recent studies have argued that this cohabitation effect reflects the fact that cohabitors are a select group in ways that predispose them to divorce. This hypothesis was investigated using data on 8177 ever-married individuals collected from a major Canadian survey. We found that premarital cohabitation was associated with a greater risk of divorce even after the effects of four sociodemographic factors that differentiate cohabitors--the presence of stepchildren marital status of first spouse parental divorce and age heterogamy--were specified in a model of marital dissolution. (EXCERPT)