• Korea journal of population studies
• /
• v.31 no.2
• /
• pp.77-100
• /
• 2008

This study explores the implications of increasing cohabitation for the Korean family, by comparing the characteristics of cohabiters with those of married couples and of never-married and divorced people. Data are from the Marriage Registration Files for the years of 1997 through 2005 and Social Statistics Survey conducted in 2006. Results from descriptive statistics and logit analysis generally confirm the predictions of the western literature. First, cohabitation is part of overall changes in the family system. Cohabitation is more prevalent among the previously married than among the never married. Second, the socioeconomic status of cohabiting men is lower than that of married men. Third, according to spouses' employment status, educational levels, and age differences, gender roles are more egalitarian among cohabiting couples than among married couples. The finding that cohabiter characteristics are not similar to those of married couples seems to suggest that cohabitation does not simply represent a trial of marriage out of caution, unlike what most media articles assume. Instead, cohabitation may signify some unconventional circumstances forcing the couple to choose it as an alternative to marriage even temporarily. This and other conjectures discussed in this paper need to be reexamined with more rigorous data, as increasing trend of cohabitation seems to be inevitable in the coming years.