equent groups, non-marital unions progressively became even more common and such unions stayed consensual for increasingly longer periods of time.A modern consensual union does not have all the characteristics of a formally approved marriage. The behavior of cohabitants is sufficiently different from that of married people to merit regarding consensual union as a separate civil status, in particular because people live in such unions for relatively long periods of their lives. Childbearing behavior in consensual unions most resembles that in marital unions in the working class, while young women from the upper class (bourgeoisie) rapidly adopted cohabitation as a practical living arrangement but were much less willing to have children before converting the union into a marriage. According to Hoem (1994), students adopted this new behavior more quickly than most other groups, but it would be wrong to say that students initiated modern cohabitation in Swedent. This group simply adopted this practice with enthusiasm because it gave them a type of union that suited their needs. Rates of consensual union formation among femal students more than doubled between the groups born between 1936-1940 and 1946-1950. Like other groups for whom marriage was not a realistic option, students were quick to take the opportunity to live together, possibly as an alternative to ‘going steady,’ and many young people took this step after having known each other for quite a short while. Undoubtedly, starting a consensual union is not seen as much of a definitive move, while marrying is.Factors Influencing the Disposition to Marry Among Cohabiting WomenModern cohabitation is one of the more important social innovations of recent decades. It has changed the pattern of family formation radically. Since the mid-1970’s, almost all Swedish women who have married had been cohabitants first, nevertheless, little is known about why some people ...
