Cohabitation and Childbearing: Changing Compatibility between Two Cohorts of Young British Women

We investigate the role of parenthood on the outcomes of nonmarital unions for two cohorts of British women between the ages of 16 and 29. We compare the effect of conceptions leading to births and the presence and characteristics of children on the odds that a cohabitation is dissolved, or that it is converted to marriage, for women born in 1958 and 1970. A multilevel multiprocess competing risks model allows for multiple cohabitations per woman and endogeneity of fertility status. We find that cohabiting couples’ response to impending parenthood and the presence of children has changed over time. In particular, the proportion of cohabiting couples who marry before a birth has decreased and, in the 1970 cohort only, the risk of dissolution declines during pregnancy. There is also evidence that the presence of a child cements a cohabiting union for women from the 1970, but not the earlier,