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Is what’s mine also yours? financial integration in non-married cohabiting adults : a phenomenological study

University of British Columbia

The purpose of this study was to gather information about the experience of the decision-making process that non-married young adult cohabiting couples have around the topic of financial integration, defined as: “the process of two individuals in a romantic relationship combining their financial resources towards a collective outcome”. The majority of the literature explores how married couples integrate their finances with one another, but very little exists on what the decision-making process being used by non-married young-adults entails. This is a particularly important demographic to study primarily due to the increasing rates of non-marital cohabitation in North America, which comes with a myriad of implications that occur as a result of the financial integration that occurs along with it. Four couples were interviewed separately. Essential themes that emerged from the non-directive, exploratory interviews include: (1) Communication strategies and intentions, (2) goal oriented decisions, and (3) factors that influence willingness to financially integrate. This study contributes to the understanding of the experience young-adult, non-married, cohabiting romantic couples have when making decisions around financial integration, and can be used to inform policy around common-law financial matters, psychoeducation for financial integration workshops, and clinical interventions in counselling settings. Implications for future research and counselling psychology impacts are discussed.

Text

2019-08-21

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/71363

Counselling Psychology

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/