Cohabitation: A Trial Period Before Marraige? Essay

Cohabitation is linked to several evidence that prove the effect of cohabitation is actually not favorable in a relationship. In contrary to the beliefs that cohabitation is beneficial in future marriage, premarital cohabitation cause instability in marriage instead. Stanley M. Scott, Kline Rhoades Galena, and Howard J.

Social scientists have defined cohabitation as a situation where two adults, male and female live together in a relationship that is intimate and non-marital. The two make living arrangements without legal bounds to stay together before getting married. In most of the countries and in this case in the United States, cohabitation is a common feature among the American family life (Stokes & Raley, n.d). It has become a typical pathway to marriage hence becoming a central part of the family landscape for adults and children and this is common in the United States (Mosailova, 2014).

In this essay, “The Cohabitation Epidemic,” by Neil Clark Warren, is talking about why many people decide to live their lives in cohabitation instead of getting married right away. Older generations would look at cohabiting as being something bad or even immoral. In this century, this epidemic is something common and, notwithstanding, normal. Over the years, the U.S. Census Bureau has kept up with how this lifestyle has evolved. In 1970, they had 1 million people that were “unmarried-partner households,” and that number rose to 3.2 million in 1990. In the year 2000, they had 11 million people living in those situations.

　　Neil Clark Warren in his essay “The Cohabitation Epidemic” starts by using tennis stars Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf’s case to mention the “cohabitation” issue and then quoting the data from the U.S Census Bureau and researcher Larry Bumpass to show that the number of people involved in cohabitation has significantly increased in the U.S in the last few decades. After that, Warren concludes that we should be alarmed over the recent increase of cohabiting couples. Before arguing against cohabitation, Warren introduces what kinds of people are cohabiting and why they are cohabiting. Followed by that, the author first uses the

More and more couples today live together or "play house" before taking the matrimonial plunge. Living together before marriage has become so popular that approximately half the couples in America participate in this activity (Gorrell 16). Some couples choose to live together to test their compatibility and possibly avoid an unsuccessful marriage. With the number of marriages ending in divorce these days, it sounds reasonable that many couples want to give marriage a trial run before making any formal commitment. But do the chances of a successful marriage actually improve by cohabiting?

With such a high percentage of people reported as cohabiting was surprising to me. Originally I thought the percent of marriages continued to outnumber cohabitating couples. As a result of the high number of Americans cohabitating reported according to the U.S Census, my first questions was, why are couples cohabitating? Currently, there is not a large variety of research about reasons for cohabitation. In fact, society is still trying to understand people’s motives to cohabitate. Based on the research that has been conducted, I ventured out to study this research to discover if my original thoughts and assumptions about factors affecting why people cohabitate matched with this research and more importantly discover factors affecting why people cohabitate.

Tradition gives way to the new era. Saying “I do” before saying, “We found our new home,” is a thing of the past. Today, more and more couples are choosing cohabitation over marriage. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, between the year of 2006 and 2010, 48% of women ranging from age 15 to 44 years of age first lived with a man to whom they were not married (Grinberg). When compared to the numbers from 1995, which was 34% percent, the change in trend becomes obvious (Grinberg). There are many reasons why marriage is no longer the next big step for America’s unwedded couples.

Random Blogger discusses in her article living together before marriage is a very great idea for couples. She claims cohabitation helps to get know each other better than dating for a long time. The author’s main point is encouraging couples to live together before they get married. Her audience is people who can accesses her web cite and specially couples how didn’t get married yet.

Current societal trends allow for more flexibility in establishing, building, and maintaining a relationship with another individual. Decades ago it was not acceptable for a couple to have sex or live together before they were married. Today, it is common for couples to reside together, even before they are engaged. The rise of couples who cohabitate prior to marriage has altered the way our society perceives marriage and relationships and led to a reformulation of the dating process.

Over the past five decades, the number of couples who cohabitate before marriage in the United States has increased by 500%. In a survey conducted in 2007, 27% of Americans voiced their disagreement with premarital cohabitation. Society’s views and positions on romantic relationships and marriage have significantly evolved throughout the past couple decades and still are rapidly changing. Due to low resistance to cohabitation and great extent of its consistency, it may seem as though there are only fragile remnants of opposition to it remaining. However, the weight of the decision to cohabitate is a serious one and it is necessary to recognize that it will result in difficult and typically unforeseen consequences. Over 12 million unmarried partners live together in the US and it's likely that nearly

In the past century Cohabitation has become common and is one of the most significant shifts in the family demographics. An estimated 50 to 60 percent couples are living together before marriage in United States. Also accoding to studies published

Bruce Wydick argued that, “cohabitation may be narrowly defined as an intimate sexual union between two unmarried partners who share the same living quarter for a sustained period of time’’ (2). In other words, people who want to experience what being in a relationship truly is, tend to live under one roof and be more familiar with one-another. Couples are on the right path to set a committed relationship where the discussion about marriage is considered as the next step. However, many people doubt the fact as to live or not together with their future

Although marriage has been a central factor and gives meaning to human lives, the change in people’s lifestyles and behaviors through a long period of social development has resulted in alternate choices such as being single or nonmarital living. As a result, cohabitation has become more popular as a trendy life choice for young people. The majority of couples choose cohabitation as a precursor to marriage to gain a better understanding of each other. However, there are exceptions, such as where Thornton, Azinn, and Xie have noted: “In fact, the couple may simply slide or drift from single into the sharing of living quarters with little explicit discussion or decision-making. This sliding into cohabitation without

These constraints lead some cohabiting couples to marry, even though they would not have married under other circumstances. On the basis of this framework, Stanley, Rhoades, et al. (2006) argued that couples who are engaged prior to cohabitation, compared with those who are not, should report fewer problems and greater relationship stability following marriage, given that they already have made a major commitment to their partners. Several studies have provided evidence consistent with this hypothesis (Brown, 2004; Rhoades, Stanley, & Markman, 2009).

For today’s young adults, the first generation to come of age during the divorce revolution, living together seems like a good way to achieve some of the benefits of marriage and avoid the risk of divorce. Couples who live together can share expenses and learn more about each other. They can find out if their partner has what it takes to be married. If things don’t work out, breaking up is easy to do. Cohabiting couples do not have to seek