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Article
Active-Duty Military Service, Cohabiting Unions, and the Transition to Marriage
Demographic Research
  • Megan Lemmon
  • Mira Whyman
  • Jay Teachman, Western Washington University
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-24-2009
Keywords
  • Active-duty military service,
  • Cohabitation,
  • Marriage,
  • Union transitions
Disciplines
Abstract

A small but growing body of research has begun to identify the consequences of military service during the all-voluntary era. In this article, we examine the relationship between military service and the likelihood that cohabiting unions will be converted into marriages. Our paper extends previous research by making a distinction between the effects of active-duty verses reserve-duty service on the transition to marriage using data from the 1979-2004 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). Our findings indicate that there is a positive relationship between active-duty service and cohabitors transitioning to marriage.

Subjects - Topical (LCSH)
Soldiers--United States; Unmarried couples--United States; Domestic relations--United States
Subjects - Names (LCNAF)
National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Labor Market Experience (U.S.)
Geographic Coverage
United States
Genre/Form
articles
Type
Text
Language
English
Format
application/pdf
Citation Information
Megan Lemmon, Mira Whyman and Jay Teachman. "Active-Duty Military Service, Cohabiting Unions, and the Transition to Marriage" Demographic Research Vol. 20 Iss. 10 (2009) p. 195 - 208
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jay_teachman/2/