How Institutionalized Is Cohabitation? Emotional and Material Support from Parents to Cohabiting Adult Children

Susan M. Lee, University of Michigan
Pamela J. Smock, University of Michigan

Previous research has suggested that nonmarital cohabitors have lower quality relationships than married individuals because cohabitation is an “incomplete institution” in the United States; not only is cohabitation not regulated by the legal system in most states, but it also lacks support from societal norms concerning partners’ appropriate roles, responsibilities, and behavior. This paper investigates one way that this institutionalization may be manifested—in parents’ provision of emotional and material support to their adult children. We examine whether parents’ support to their adult children varies by the adult child’s relationship status. With cohabitation becoming an increasingly normative experience, it is important to understand the ways in which it differs from and is similar to marriage. Our results will help to determine whether cohabitation has indeed been institutionalized in individual social relationships even if it has not yet been institutionalized in the US legal system.