Author Description

Perhaps no social phenomenon reflects more clearly the changing values in modern society than cohabitation, that is, a heterosexual couple living together outside of marriage. In Cohabitation: An Alternative Form of Family Living, Zheng Wu examines the implications of this phenomenon from the points of view of sociology, demography, and economics, using data from the Canadian census, the 1990 and 1995 cycles of the General Social Survey, and the 1984 Canadian Fertility Survey. Topics include cohabitation trends, shifting attitudes in the populace, how and why people choose cohabitation as an alternative to or 'trial' for marriage, child-bearing, the breakup of relationships, the individual and societal consequences of cohabitation, and the future of this form of family living. In the concluding chapter, the book consideres also the legal and public policy implications of this deep demographic shift.