ABSTRACT:Cohabitation refers that a man and a woman live together without legal marriage. As a social phenomenon, cohabitation in the history of Chinese and foreign is widespread and of long standing; the earliest history can be traced back to “concubinato” in Ancient Rome. And in the lives of contemporary people, cohabitation is still being. At present, with the rapid economic development and a growing respect for the private rights, there is a popular trend of cohabitation in the world. In America, cohabitation of unmarried adult men and women even has become an alternative way of life and this has attracted more attention of people. 

Cohabitation as a social phenomenon, there are the profound history reasons behind it. In recent years, scholars have done some in-depth studies. Some scholars point out that the prevalence of American cohabitation is related to American individualism value. Individualism as the core of American culture enormously influences American family mode in addition to American politics, economy and culture. This paper discusses the status and reasons of American cohabitation phenomenon from individualism perspective, as well as the influence of American individualism on American cohabitation in hope of presenting a kind of comprehensive understanding of American culture for people.

Keywords: America; cohabitation; individualism; culture

摘要:同居,即没有婚姻关系的男女一起按照类似于婚姻的模式共同生活。作为一种社会现象,同居在中外历史上普遍存在,源远流长;最早可以追溯到古罗马时期的姘合制度。直至当代人们的日常生活,无不能看到同居的影子。时至当下,随着经济的高速发展,人们对个人私权利的日益尊重,同居这一现象在全世界都形成了流行的趋势。在美国，同居更是作为一种可供选择的家庭生活方式。它的流行,越来越引起人们的广泛关注。

作为一种社会现象,美国同居的盛行有着深刻的历史原因。鉴于此,学者们对这一现象做了深入的调查研究。一些学者提出美国同居的盛行跟美国的个人主义价值观有很大关系。个人主义作为美国文化的核心，它除了影响着美国政治、经济，在很大程度上，它更影响了美国人的生活模式。本文从个人主义角度出发探究美国同居现象的现状，原因并深度挖掘个人主义对它的影响，希望为人们呈现一种对个人主义和同居现象比较全面的理解。

关键词：美国；同居；个人主义；文化