Whose Plans Matter? The Transition from Cohabitation to Marriage in the United States

Berna S. Miller, Brown University

Much has been written about how socioeconomic characteristics, behaviors, attitudes, and values affect the desirability of a person as a marriage partner. Most studies assume that the transition to marriage is equivalent to marriage desires and intentions. Using data for cohabiting couples from the National Survey of Families and Households Waves 1 (1987-1988) and 2 (1992-1994), this paper attempts to disentangle the formation of individual cohabitors' marriage preferences from the couple's joint decision to marry. First, this analysis examines the effect of both partners' income, income share, work status, housework hours, and gender ideology on cohabitors' marriage intentions and how this process varies by gender. Second, this analysis examines how these individual marriage plans affect the couples' transition to marriage in the framework of couple decision-making. Since each partner may have different amounts of influence in the decision-making process, the roles of bargaining and gender in this process are examined.