Through the Healthy Marriage Initiative, the U.S. government promotes marital quality among low-income persons despite a lack of knowledge about marital quality and its predictors among the target population. Little is known about how couples’ romantic relationship trajectories may impact marital quality, even with profound variation in ways couples form unions. To investigate this lacuna, I address four research aims using data from 399 low-income married couples in the Marriage and Relationship Survey.
My first two research aims offer new knowledge on low-income couples’ romantic relationship trajectories and their predictors. First, I describe the sequencing of four events following the start of the dating relationship: sex, cohabitation, marriage, and childbearing. I differentiate couples into four mutually exclusive groups: (1) "traditional" couples, who neither cohabited nor had sex prior to marriage; (2) "traditional-plus-sex" couples, who did engage in premarital sex, but did not cohabit before marriage; (3) "modern" couples, who engaged in premarital sex and cohabited prior marrying; and (4) "unconventional" couples, who, besides premarital sex and cohabitation, also experienced premarital joint parenthood. I then describe couples’ relationship spacing, i.e., the time separating: (1) dating and marriage; (2) dating and first sex; (3) dating and cohabitation; (4) cohabitation and marriage; and (5) marriage and the postmarital birth of the couples’ first child. I find genuinely different romantic relationship trajectories, with couples engaging in sex, cohabitation, and childbearing at varying rates and at various time points in the relationship. My second research aim is to explore sociodemographic factors associated with couples’ relationship trajectories. Using multinomial logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards models, I find the calendar year the couple began dating, previous union history of the couple, and experiences in the family of origin to be significant correlates. The question remains: Are relationship trajectories related to marital quality among low-income couples?
The third aim of my study, therefore, examines whether associations exist between relationship trajectories and marital quality. Using ideas from the inertia and constraint commitment hypotheses and marital search theory, I hypothesize that couples who engaged in premarital sex, cohabitation, and childbearing will report poorer marital quality than those who delayed some or all of these events until marriage and that the time spent between most relationship events would be positively related to marital quality. I run a series of logistic regression models, comparing spouses reporting high marital satisfaction, high commitment, and low conflict to those who do not. I find that relationship trajectories are not strongly related to subsequent marital quality, at least for my sample. I point to deficiencies of the theories but am mindful that the absence of trajectory effects may be due to sample selection.
My final research aim is to examine other correlates of marital quality among low-income couples. I find the frequency of joint religious activity is positively associated with high marital quality, while severe economic hardship has the opposite effect. Other significant correlates of marital quality are employment, race, and childhood experience of parental marriage. I conclude by discussing policy implications of my findings.