ABSTRACT
It is possible to distinguish between three types of cohabiting relationship. First there were those that were marriage-like when they broke down: their living-together relationship had preceded the birth of the first child by at least one year, and had continued for a year or more following the child's birth (25 per cent). Of these, 44 per cent had spent over three years with their child in the mother's household. Second, in contrast 20 per cent of cohabitants had had very short relationships with the mother, living together for less than a year before the birth and separating within a year after the birth. These co habitations may have been associated with the pregnancy, and there was little opportunity in them for a lasting relationship to have been established with their child. Finally, other cohabitations were more difficult to categorise - those that had lasted for longer than a year before the birth but ended within a year of the birth (15 per cent of all), or those that had lasted less than a year before the birth but had gone on for over a year after the birth (39 per cent).
