Marriage and Cohabitation

Arland Thornton is professor of sociology and a research professor at the Institute for Social Research (ISR) at the University of Michigan. He is the author of "Reading History Sideways", also published by the University of Chicago Press.

William G. Axinn is professor of sociology at the University of Michigan and a research professor at the ISR.

Yu Xie is the Otis Dudley Duncan Professor of Sociology and Statistics at the University of Michigan and a research professor at the ISR.

"Choice Magazine": CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Awards – Won


"Impressive... family demographers will find it invaluable, and other kinds of scholars and researchers will find it very useful. The authors point out that the predictors of entering into cohabitation and marriage are different, and they discuss how cohabitation may affect decisions about marriage... the research reported here is important" – Norval D. Glenn, University of Texas, Austin

"This is an important book that should be read by anyone who cares about research on young adulthood in the United States. It is full of insights and provocative findings linking the generations. The analyses carefully account for pathways of influence on young adults' decision-making about union formation that flow from the lives of their parents and even their grandparents, and are able to distinguish effects that operate most strongly on children from those whose effects are most strongly felt in young adulthood. A tremendous accomplishment" – Frances Goldscheider, College Park Professor of Family Studies, University of Maryland

"Applying state-of-the-art analytic strategies to data from a rich, multi-generational, longitudinal data archive, three premier social scientists describe both changes and previously underappreciated historical continuity in contemporary marriage/cohabitation. They use skill and care in their analyses and especially in their interpretations. The result is a detailed portrait of generational change and stability in union formation" – S. Philip Morgan, Chair and Professor, Sociology Department, Duke University

"What is noteworthy is the importance of intergenerational factors in people's decisions on cohabitation and marriage. This book is an important scholarly contribution to understanding marriage and family in the US, with many interesting insights and interpretations concerning the growing phenomenon of premarital cohabitation... Highly recommended" – Choice

"A brave attempt at providing a review of the history of the development of marriage and cohabitation in prior centuries and of utilising the life histories of a generation of parents and children who live out their lives across much of the twentieth century to benchmark, illustrate and facilitate our understanding of the meaning of marriage and cohabitation" – Kathleen Kiernan, European Journal of Population

"The book will be of interest to researchers in family-related fields. The literature review is extensive, the presentations of statistical modelling results are easy to understand, and the findings regarding possible intergenerational influences on union formation pathways are insightful" – Journal of Population Research