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Published on: September 27, 2019
Personal traits, cohabitation, and marriage
Michael T French1, Ioana Popovici2, Philip K Robins3
1Department of Sociology, Department of Economics, and Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Miami, 5202 University Drive, Merrick Building, Room 121F, P.O. Box 248162, Coral Gables, FL 33124-2030, USA.
Abstract:
This study examines how personal traits affect the likelihood of entering into a cohabitating or marital relationship using a competing risk survival model with cohabitation and marriage as competing outcomes. The data are from Waves 1, 3, and 4 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a rich dataset with a large sample of young adults (N=9835). A personal traits index is constructed from interviewer-assessed scores on the respondents' physical attractiveness, personality, and grooming. Having a higher score on the personal traits index is associated with a greater hazard of entering into a marital relationship for men and women, but the score does not have a significant influence on entering into a cohabitating relationship. Numerous sensitivity tests support the core findings.
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