Older Adults' Attitudes Toward Cohabitation: Two Decades of Change

Our study tracks cohort change in the attitudes of adults aged 50 and older toward cohabitation from 1994 to 2012.

We used data from the 1994, 2002, and 2012 waves of the General Social Survey to examine the roles of cohort replacement and intracohort change in the trend toward favorable cohabitation attitudes and to examine sociodemographic variation in patterns of support for cohabitation.

Support for cohabitation accelerated over time with nearly half (46%) of older adults reporting favorable attitudes toward cohabitation in 2012 versus just 20% in 1994. This shift in older adults' attitudes largely reflected cohort replacement rather than intracohort change. Some of the factors associated with later life cohabitation experience were linked to supportive attitudes.

Cohort succession is fueling the growing acceptance of cohabitation among older adults and coincides with the rapid growth in later life cohabitation that has occurred in recent decades.