This chapter explores the meanings of marriage, cohabitation, and being single; the contrasts among these statuses; and how cohabitation relates to marriage and being single. It also examines the heterogeneity of cohabitors by considering the motivations and expectations of people who cohabit, both at the beginning of cohabitation and later in the relationship, beginning with being single, because it is the first relationship status experienced by young people. Although babies enter the world embedded within a complex kin and community system, their relationship status is firmly and clearly...

This chapter explores the meanings of marriage, cohabitation, and being single; the contrasts among these statuses; and how cohabitation relates to marriage and being single. It also examines the heterogeneity of cohabitors by considering the motivations and expectations of people who cohabit, both at the beginning of cohabitation and later in the relationship, beginning with being single, because it is the first relationship status experienced by young people. Although babies enter the world embedded within a complex kin and community system, their relationship status is firmly and clearly single as they are born without partner and without spouse. In Western societies, this single status persists through the first decade of life and changes dramatically in the second decade with the coming of adolescence and young adulthood.