ارتباط بین زندگی مشترک قبل از ازدواج و کیفیت زناشویی پس از آن، ثبات، و طلاق: مقایسه ازدوجا مبتنی میثاق در مقابل ازدواج های استاندارد

We extend prior research on the association between premarital cohabitation and marital outcomes by investigating whether covenant marriage, which entails more stringent requirements for divorce, minimizes the deleterious effects of cohabitation on subsequent marital quality and stability. Using a unique longitudinal data set of covenant and standard newlywed couples in Louisiana, we find that covenant marriage does not modify the effects of premarital cohabitation on marital instability, happiness, dependency, or divorce for either wives or husbands. In fact, once we control for sociodemographic characteristics, premarital relationship factors, and marital factors, the relationships between premarital cohabitation and marital outcomes reduces to non-significance, suggesting that selection factors largely account for the deleterious effects of premarital cohabitation on marital success.

Social welfare advocates and policymakers are placing great emphasis on developing public programs and legal reforms intended to encourage marriage formation, strengthen unions, and discourage divorce (Bogenschneider, 2000, Galston, 1996 and Popenoe, 1999). The past decade has witnessed the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DoMA), revisions of welfare laws to promote marriage as a route out of poverty (Besharov and Sullivan, 1996), and many state and local initiatives to offer marriage communication education as a part of school curricula and marriage license application procedures (Bogenschneider, 2000 and Hawkins et al., 2002). And some states, including Louisiana, have adopted covenant marriage laws designed to strengthen marriage and deter divorce. These policy efforts come at a time when Americans are spending fewer years—both absolutely and proportionately—in the married state than at any other point in U.S. history (Casper and Bianchi, 2002 and Espenshade, 1985). Age at first marriage is at an all-time high, divorce rates remain stable and high, and fewer persons remarry in the event of divorce (Casper and Bianchi, 2002 and Cherlin, 1992). The corresponding increase in cohabitation is largely responsible for the delay in entry into first marriages and more than compensates for the decline in remarriage (Bumpass and Lu, 2000 and Bumpass et al., 1991).