Dynamic Relationships between Premarital Cohabitation and Illicit Drug Use: An Event-History Analysis of Role Selection and Role Socialization

Abstract

Event-history analysis is applied to life and drug histories to specify the dynamic relationships between premarital cohabitation and the use of illicit drugs, and the effect of premarital cohabitation on entry into marriage. Use of marijuana and other illicit drugs increases the probability of cohabitation for men and women (role selection), while cohabitation reduces the use of marijuana among women (role socialization). Premarital cohabitation is more likely to end in separation than in marriage to the partner, especially among users of illicit drugs other than marijuana, blacks and students; marriage to the partner is more likely to occur among women who were highly religious in adolescence. Premarital cohabitation does not appear to undermine marriage as an institution since it does not lead to the postponement of marriage but predicts earlier marriage for men in general and for women highly religious as adolescents. Although the direct effect of marijuana use on entering cohabitation seems to result from unobserved factors common to both states, marijuana use seems to have an indirect effect on increasing the number of premarital cohabitants by postponing marriage and thereby lengthening the risk period for premarital cohabitation. The implications of these processes for the dramatic increases in cohabitation and illicit drug use observed in the last two decades are discussed.