COHABITATION AND DIVORCE IN CANADA - TESTING THE SELECTIVITY HYPOTHESIS

Findings from various countries indicate that premarital cohabitation is linked to a higher risk of first marriage dissolution. A number of recent studies have argued that this ''cohabitation effect'' reflects the fact that cohabitors are a select group in ways that predispose them to divorce. This hypothesis was investigated using data on 8,177 ever-married individuals collected from a major Canadian survey. We found that premarital cohabitation was associated with a greater risk of divorce even after the effects of four sociodemographic factors that differentiate cohabitors-the presence of stepchildren, marital status of first spouse, parental divorce, and age heterogamy-were specified in a model of marital dissolution.