Table 1.

Weighted Descriptive Statistics for Women’s Cohabitations in the 2006–2013 NSFG

	Not a stepfamily	Stepfamily
Race-ethnicity			***
White	71.4%	57.2%
Black	6.9%	20.9%
Native-bornHispanic	9.6%	9.5%
Foreign-bornHispanic	6.4%	7.1%
Other	5.7%	5.3%
Mean age at start	21.9 yrs (.122)	25.6 yrs (.126)	***
High school degree at start	74.4%	61.4%	***
Family structure at age 14			***
Both biological parents	60.7%	49.3%
Stepfamily	12.7%	13.4%
Other family	26.6%	37.4%
Maternal education			***
<HS or missing	20.7%	31.8%
HS degree	33.8%	35.8%
Some college	26.2%	20.8%
College or higher	19.3%	11.7%
Prior & current union characteristics
Respondent previously married	4.9%	31.6%	***
Partner previously married	6.2%	40.8%	***
Engaged at start	42.1%	36.7%	***
Shared childbearing by last month of observation			***
No births	74.6%	67.3%
Only intended births	11.1%	16.8%
Any unintended births	14.3%	16.0%
Cohabitation order			***
First cohabitation	81.9%	51.0%
Second cohabitation	14.4%	35.0%
Third or higher cohabitation	3.6%	14.0%
Period & duration
Time period cohabitation started			***
1984 or earlier	1.7%	1.3%
1985–1989	7.0%	5.2%
1990–1994	15.8%	11.8%
1995–1999	19.7%	19.1%
2000–2004	25.1%	25.4%
2005–2009	22.5%	27.3%
2010 or later	8.3%	10.0%
Mean duration at transition/interview	30.1 mos (.723)	34.6 mos (.814)	***
Cohabitation outcome
Intact	15.4%	17.9%	***
Married	47.9%	41.5%
Dissolved	36.7%	40.6%
Cohabitations	7,043	6,374

^*p≤.05

^**p≤.01

^***p≤.001

Significance tests across stepfamily status