Editing Cohabitation (section)

===Effect on children===

In 2001, researchers compared teenage children in the United States living in a cohabiting household (a single mother and her boyfriend who was not related to the teenager) against peers in single-parent households. The results showed white and Hispanic teenagers had lower performance in school, greater risk of suspension or expulsion than peers from single-parent households, and the same rate of behavioral and emotional problems.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Nelson |first=Sandi |author2=Rebecca L. Clark |author3=Gregory Acs |title=Beyond the Two-Parent Family: How Teenagers Fare in Cohabitating Couple and Blended Families |journal=Urban Institute |date=May 2001 |series=New Federalism: National Survey of America's Families |issue=B-31 |url=http://www.urban.org/publications/310339.html |access-date=20 April 2012 |archive-date=16 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716000838/http://www.urban.org/publications/310339.html |url-status=dead}}</ref>

A study on the 1995 and 2002 National Survey of Family Growth found increases in both the prevalence and duration of unmarried cohabitation.<ref name="pmid19119426">{{cite journal |last=Kennedy |first=Sheela |author2=Larry Bumpass |title=Cohabitation and children's living arrangements: New estimates from the United States |journal=Demographic Research |date=19 September 2008 |volume=19 |issue=47 |pages=1663–1692 |doi=10.4054/DemRes.2008.19.47 |pmc=2612998 |pmid=19119426}}</ref> The study found that 40% of children in the United States would live in a cohabiting household by age 12, and children born to single mothers were more likely than those born to married mothers to live in a cohabiting household. The percentage of women ages 19–44 who had ever cohabited increased from 45% in 1995 to 54% in 2002.<ref name="pmid19119426" />

In 2002, 63% of women who graduate from high school were found to spend some time cohabiting, compared to only 45% of women with a four-year college degree.<ref name="pmid19119426" /> Cohabiting couples who have children often get married. One study found that children born of parents who cohabit are 90% more likely to end up living in households with married parents than children born to single mothers. 67% of unmarried Hispanic mothers are expected to marry, while 40% of African American mothers are expected to marry.<ref name="pmid19119426" />