Specialization in Household Activities within Cohabiting versus Married Households

Leslie Stratton, Virginia Commonwealth University

A simple model of intrahousehold specialization is developed. This model predicts that the shorter the expected duration of a relationship, the less intrahousehold specialization will arise. Cohabiting relationships are of shorter duration than marriages in the United States, suggesting that cohabiting households will specialize less than married households. Data on household time use from the National Survey of Families and Households are used to provide evidence of intrahousehold specialization as a whole and to test its sensitivity to the duration of the relationship. Differences in home ownership, parental status, employment status, and age are observed between cohabiting and married households and found to be important determinants of specialization. Results indicate that on average cohabiting households engage in less intrahousehold specialization than married households, with much of the differential attributable to the shorter length of cohabiting relationships rather than to the type of relationship per se.