Marriage and Cohabitation following Premarital Conception

The role of cohabitation in the legitimation of premarital conceptions is considered using data on a sample of 920 women from the [U.S.] National Survey of Families and Households....Cohabitation does not appear to be a substitute for marriage....Findings indicate that cohabitation is part of the legitimation process and that it influences white womens and black womens marital behavior differently. This is a revised version of a paper originally presented at the 1992 Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America. (EXCERPT)