The Effects of Jail and Prison Confinement on Cohabitation and Marriage

This study uses the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 to explore the relationship between incarceration and the stability of cohabiting and marital relationships. Self-report dates of relatively short confinement in jail or prison (median one month) are linked with data on cohabitation and residential partnerships, by month, from ages 18 to 32. I estimate the effects of incarceration on transitions into and out of cohabitation and marriage while controlling for other salient life events (e.g., employment, parenthood). Findings indicate that incarceration precipitates an immediate and persistent disruption in residential partnerships and is also a long-term impediment to the transition to marriage (but not the transition to cohabitation). The long-term disruption in existing residential partnerships applies equally to females and males, as well as to whites, African Americans (males only), and Hispanics.