Bumpass Larry, Lu Hsien-Hen
Popul Stud (Camb). 2000 Jan;54(1):29-41. doi: 10.1080/713779060.
This paper documents increasing cohabitation in the United States, and the implications of this trend for the family lives of children. The stability of marriage-like relationships (including marriage and cohabitation) has decreased despite a constant divorce rate. Children increasingly live in cohabiting families either as a result of being born to cohabiting parents or of their mother s entry into a cohabiting union. The proportion of births to unmarried women born into cohabiting families increased from 29 to 39 per cent in the period 1980-84 to 1990-94, accounting for almost all of the increase in unmarried childbearing. As a consequence, about two-fifths of all children spend some time in a cohabiting family, and the greater instability of families begun by cohabitation means that children are also more likely to experience family disruption. Estimates from multi-state life tables indicate the extent to which the family lives of children are spent increasingly in cohabiting families and decreasingly in married families.
本文记录了美国同居现象的增加，以及这一趋势对儿童家庭生活的影响。尽管离婚率保持不变，但类似婚姻关系（包括婚姻和同居）的稳定性却有所下降。儿童越来越多地生活在同居家庭中，这或是因为他们出生于同居父母家庭，或是因为其母亲进入了同居关系。出生于同居家庭的未婚女性生育比例从1980 - 1984年期间的29%增至1990 - 1994年期间的39%，几乎占了未婚生育增长的全部。结果，约五分之二的儿童会在某个阶段生活在同居家庭中，而由同居开始的家庭更大的不稳定性意味着儿童也更有可能经历家庭破裂。多州生命表的估计显示，儿童的家庭生活越来越多地在同居家庭中度过，而在已婚家庭中度过的时间则越来越少。
