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The majority of emerging adults in the United States spend time in cohabiting unions. Prior research has suggested that higher levels of sexual non-exclusivity may exist among those in cohabiting relationships compared to marital unions. Although these basic patterns have been explored in prior work, research examining the potential reasons why levels of sexual non-exclusivity differ by union status has been limited. Drawing on a relational perspective and using the fifth wave of data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS), the present study found that higher levels of sexual non-exclusivity in cohabiting relationships were explained by intimate relationship characteristics and sexual histories rather than sociodemographic factors, partner heterogamy, or partner- and couple-level drug use. These findings highlighted that understanding the higher rates of sexually non-exclusive experiences in cohabiting relationships, compared to marital relationships, requires attention to specific dynamics of the intimate partnership and prior relational experiences of both partners. The study concluded that cohabitation has a unique place in emerging adults’ relationship landscape and may set the groundwork for future relationship functioning.

Prior researchers have documented significant effects of family violence on adult children’s own risk for intimate partner violence (IPV). Yet, few studies have examined whether exposure to family violence while growing up as well as emerging adults’ reports of their current peers’ behaviors and attitudes influenced self-reports of intimate partner violence perpetration. The current study based on interviews with a large, heterogeneous sample of men and women assessed the degree to which current peers’ attitudes and behaviors contributed to risk of intimate partner violence perpetration, net of family violence.

Using data from the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS) (n = 928), we examined associations between family violence indicators, peers’ behaviors and attitudes, and self-reports of intimate violence perpetration among adults ages 22–29. We used ordinary least squares regression and controlled for other known correlates of IPV.

For men and women, we found a significant relationship between witnessing parental violence during adolescence and IPV perpetration in emerging adulthood, and a positive relationship between current peers’ IPV experiences and attitudes and respondents’ perpetration. We also found that for respondents who reported higher, compared with lower, peer involvement in partner violence, the effects of parental violence were stronger.

We provided a more comprehensive assessment of peers’ IPV to this body of research, which tends to focus on family violence. Studies have examined peers’ attitudes and behavior during adolescence, but we extended this work by examining both peer and familial influences into emerging adulthood.

In the US, approximately 70% of mothers and 93% of fathers with children who are under 18 years are in the paid labor force, and studies have documented that employed parents with young children often experience high levels of stress as they attempt to manage or balance the demands of their work and family roles. The current study focused on factors associated with observed variability in reports about work–family stress and considered the roles of parenting stress, child characteristics, as well as conflict with the other parent. Prior research has shown that parenting a more “difficult” child is a source of parenting stress, but such studies have not focused specifically on work–family conflict as a consequential outcome, have tended to be limited to older parents, and often have focused only on mothers. We also investigated the role of partner disagreements about assistance with parenting responsibilities as a further complication to family life that may influence perceived work–family stress among co-residential parents. Drawing on data from employed young adult parents, the Toledo Adolescent Relationships Study (TARS) (n=263), we found that having a child perceived as more difficult was associated with greater work–family stress. Among co-residential parents, stress but not parenting disagreements with the other parent was associated with greater work–family stress. The findings highlight the importance of providing institutional and informal support to such parents.