COHABITATION AND MARRIAGE - RETROSPECTIVE AND PREDICTIVE COMPARISONS

A nationwide Australian survey was conducted in order (1) to distingui sh between married couples who either had or had not cohabited prior t o marriage and (2) to distinguish between cohabiting couples who eithe r did or did not marry subsequently. A total of 96 cohabiting couples and 117 married couples completed an omnibus 16-page questionnaire cov ering a variety of demographic, attitudinal, behavioral and personalit y domains. Couples were recontacted after an interval of 1 1/2 years t o identify the kind and extent of changes during the intervening perio d. In general, as predicted, marrieds with cohabiting experience and c ohabitors who avoided marriage revealed a less traditional pattern of responses (e.g. higher feminism scores, wider sexual experience, less stereotyped division of chores, etc.) than their respective counterpar ts. It was predicted, and found, that the former couples showed greate r evidence of autonomy needs and less evidence of attachment needs tha n the latter.