Gender Differences and Factors Related to the Disposition Toward Cohabitation

This paper explored factors associated with the disposition toward cohabitation. Analysis of the data revealed that, among the total sample, a willingness to cohabit is related to being older, lower levels of religiosity, more liberal attitudes toward sexual behavior, less traditional views of marriage, and less traditional views of sex roles. However, analysis further indicated a gender difference in the way various factors are associated with the disposition to cohabit. For the female subsample these factors are generally related to the willingness to cohabit. However, this was not the case for the male subsample. Only two factors were significantly related to their willingness to cohabit— lower levels of religiosity and more tolerant views of rape