Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: As an indicator of social distance and social inequality, interracial cohabitation nonetheless has been attracting little attention in the past few decades. The current study is the first attempt in sociological academic field to examine the influence of demographic characteristics on the likelihoods of interracial cohabitation between whites and minorities in the United States. Using multinomial logistic regression with the national representative data of CPS (2003-2005), the current study investigates the influences of educational attainment on the likelihoods of interracial cohabitation between whites and minorities (Non-Hispanic Black, Non-Hispanic Asian, Hispanic) in the United States. With an emphasis on the examination of cohabitations between whites and Asian Americans, this paper finds that whites who are better educated are more likely to cohabit with Asian Americans, compared to whites who cohabit with other minorities. And it is true for both males and females. Additionally, contrary to the common idea that Asians are less likely to cohabit because of their deep-rooted and traditional family values, this paper finds that Asians in the United States have the highest percentage of interracial cohabitation with whites. Both findings indicate that, when taking interracial cohabitation into account, the social distance between Asian Americans and whites in the United States are even smaller than we previously thought.