“Everything's There Except Money”: How Money Shapes Decisions to Marry Among Cohabitors

2005/07/07 by Pamela J. Smock, Wendy D. Manning, Meredith Porter · 5 citations
Social Sciences · #Family Dynamics and Relationships #Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving #Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics

paper · doi:10.1111/j.1741-3737.2005.00162.x

openalex publication_date 2005/07/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/18

Abstract

Cohabitation is now the modal path to marriage in the United States. Drawing on data from 115 in‐depth interviews with cohabitors from the working and lower middle classes, this paper explores how economics shape marital decision making. We find that cohabitors typically perceive financial issues as important for marriage, and we delineate several key themes. Whereas some social scientists speculate that cohabitors must think that marriage will change their lives in order to motivate marriage, our findings suggest that cohabitors believe marriage should occur once something has already changed—in this case, their financial status. Our results also imply that political and scientific discourse on financial problems as deterrents to marriage should be broadened beyond a focus on poor unmarried parents.

Citations

• Four Decades of Trends in Attitudes Toward Family Issues in the United States: The 1960s Through the 1990s
• Bridging Positivist and Interpretivist Approaches to Qualitative Methods
• The deinstitutionalization of American marriage
• Economic potential and entry into marriage and cohabitation

Cited by

• Cohabitation and children's living arrangements
• The Specter of Divorce: Views From Working‐ and Middle‐Class Cohabitors
• A ‘brave thing to do’ or a normative practice? Marriage after long-term cohabitation
• Risk-avoidance or utmost commitment
• Cohabitation [wikipedia]