Cohabitation has become a normative experience for American young adults and a common setting for childbearing in recent decades. However, the high dissolution rate of cohabitation exposes young adults to the potential stress of intimate relationship dissolution and single parenthood during early adulthood. Drawing on data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, we apply growth curve models to analyze how cohabitation dissolution associates with trajectories of depressive symptoms and binge drinking behaviors for young adults (aged 17 to 35). We investigate how the presence of children moderates this association for men and women. We find that cohabitation dissolution is associated with increased depressive symptoms for both men and women. However, cohabitation dissolution is only positively associated with binge drinking behaviors for men, and a significant gender difference is observed. The presence of children when cohabitation dissolves strengthens the positive association between cohabitation dissolution and depressive symptoms among women, and this positive moderation fades away as young women age. These findings suggest that gender differences in the association of cohabitation dissolution with psychological distress are contingent on the types of psychological distress under consideration and also reveal that cohabitation dissolution intertwined with non-marital parenthood is harmful to mental health, especially for young women.

近几十年来，同居已成为美国年轻人的规范体验和生育的常见环境。然而，同居的高解散率使年轻人在成年早期面临亲密关系解体和单亲的潜在压力。利用 1997 年全国青年纵向调查的数据，我们应用增长曲线模型来分析同居解除与年轻人（17 至 35 岁）抑郁症状和暴饮行为的轨迹之间的关系。我们调查儿童的存在如何缓和男性和女性的这种关联。我们发现，同居解除与男性和女性的抑郁症状增加有关。然而，同居解除仅与男性的酗酒行为呈正相关，并且观察到显着的性别差异。当同居关系解除时，孩子的存在加强了同居关系解除与女性抑郁症状之间的正相关关系，这种积极的缓和随着年轻女性年龄的增长而逐渐消失。这些研究结果表明，同居解除与心理困扰之间的性别差异取决于所考虑的心理困扰的类型，并且还表明，与非婚父母关系交织在一起的同居解除对心理健康有害，尤其是对年轻女性而言。当同居关系解除时，孩子的存在加强了同居关系解除与女性抑郁症状之间的正相关关系，这种积极的缓和随着年轻女性年龄的增长而逐渐消失。这些研究结果表明，同居解除与心理困扰之间的性别差异取决于所考虑的心理困扰的类型，并且还表明，与非婚父母关系交织在一起的同居解除对心理健康有害，尤其是对年轻女性而言。当同居关系解除时，孩子的存在加强了同居关系解除与女性抑郁症状之间的正相关关系，这种积极的缓和随着年轻女性年龄的增长而逐渐消失。这些研究结果表明，同居解除与心理困扰之间的性别差异取决于所考虑的心理困扰的类型，并且还表明，与非婚父母关系交织在一起的同居解除对心理健康有害，尤其是对年轻女性而言。