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The Effects of Cohabitation in Todays Societ Essay

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The Effects of Cohabitation on Todays Society
Erin Bedard

Cohabitation is replacing marriage as the first living together experience for young men and women. When blushing brides walk down the aisle at the beginning of the new millennium, well over half have already lived together with a boyfriend.
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 …show more content…

Opponents of cohabitation commonly cite statistics that indicate that couples who have lived together before marriage are more likely to divorce, and that unhappiness, ill health, poverty, and domestic violence are more common in unmarried couples than in married ones. Cohabitation advocates, in turn, cite limited research that either disproves these claims or indicates that the statistical differences are due to other factors than the fact of cohabitation itself. Studies conducted through the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s showed that cohabitation has a strong correlation with divorce. Recent studies, however, have pointed to possible different results. Cohabitation is on the rise, and many people are okay with it.
Should We Live Together? A Comprehensive Look at the Research
The number of common-law-couple families surged 19 per cent to almost 1.4 million.
The number of single-parent families increased 7.8 per cent, also reaching 1.4 million and accounting for 16 per cent of families.
There was also a hike in common-law relationships in general, with 2.8 million persons aged 15 and over reporting they lived with their partner outside of marriage in 2006.
They accounted for 10.8 per cent of the population, up from 9.7 per cent in 2001.
Common-law relationships are still most popular in Quebec, where their numbers soared by more than 20 per cent since 2001 to comprise 44.4 per cent of the Canadian total in 2006.

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