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Why Marriage Matters: The Negative Consequences of Cohabitation Article posted on 5/6/2008 Article has been viewed 884 times. Rates of cohabitation have increased an astonishing 700% since 1970 and the number of cohabiting couples with children living in the home has increased nearly 550% from 1970 to 1994.1 Many cohabitors enter these unions believing the experience will serve as a successful testing ground for marriage leading to a more harmonious and happy marital relationship. Unfortunately, the research data collected over the past twenty-five years does not support this conclusion. To the contrary, cohabiting relationships are weaker, more violent, less equalitarian and more likely to lead to divorce. Cohabitation and Divorce Sociologists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison report, "Recent national studies in Canada, Sweden, and the United States found that cohabitation increased, rather than decreased, the risk of marital dissolution."2 A leading researcher on cohabitation from the University of Victoria, British Columbia, reports, "Contrary to conventional wisdom that living together before marriage will screen out poor matches and therefore improve subsequent marital stability, there is considerable empirical evidence demonstrating that premarital cohabitation is associated with lowered marital stability."3 Other researchers found, "cohabitation is not related to marital happiness, but is related to lower levels of marital interaction, higher levels of marital disagreement and marital instability." They conclude, "On the basis of the analysis provided so far, we must reject that argument that cohabitation provides superior training for marriage or improves mate-selection."4 Research conducted at Yale and Columbia University and published in American Sociological Review found, The overall association between premarital cohabitation and subsequent marital stability is striking. The dissolution rate of women who cohabit premaritally with their future spouse are, on average, nearly 80 percent higher than the rates of those who do not.5 Other studies show that those who have any type of pre-marital cohabiting experience have a 50 to 100 percent greater likelihood of divorce than those who do not cohabit premaritally.6 Health of Cohabiting Relationships Researchers Michael Newcomb and P.M. Bentler report, In regard to problem areas, it was found that cohabitors experienced significantly more difficulty in their marriages with adultery, alcohol, drugs, and independence than couples who had not cohabited. Apparently this makes marriage preceded by cohabitation more prone to problems often associated with other deviant lifestyles – for example, use of drugs and alcohol, more permissive sexual relationships, and an abhorrence of dependence – than marriages not preceded by cohabitation.7 Married males are more likely than their cohabiting peers to expect to participate equally in household duties like cleaning, cooking, bill-paying, caring for the children, etc.8 Domestic Violence The Family Violence Research Program at the University of New Hampshire, the nation’s leading institution to study domestic violence, finds that, "Cohabitors are much more violent than marrieds." Specifically, the overall rate of violence for cohabiting couples is twice as high as for married couples and the overall rate for "severe" violence is nearly five times as high.9 The Journal of Family Violence explains the following regarding the most common relationship between batterer and victim: "The most frequently cited relationship was cohabitation with close to one half (48 percent) of the couples living together." The lowest rate was found among married couples (19 percent). The divorced and separated held the middle ranking (27.3 percent).10 Given the findings of the scientific literature, sociologists conclude, "It is difficult to argue that cohabitors resemble married people."11 A more thorough treatment of cohabitation is contained in Glenn T. Stanton’s Why Marriage Matters: Reasons to Believe on Marriage in Postmodern Society, (Colorado Springs: Pinon Press, 1997). To order, call 803/733-5600. Endnotes 1 Arlene Saluter, Marital Status and Living Arrangements: March 1994, U.S. Bureau of the Census, March 1996, Series P20-484, table A-5; Larry Bumpass, James Sweet and Andrew Cherlin, "The Role of Cohabitation in Declining Rates of Marriage," Journal of Marriage and the Family 53 (1991): 913-927. 2 William Axxinn and Arland Thornton, "The Relationship Between Cohabitation and Divorce: Selectivity or Casual Influence?" Demography 29 (1992): 357-374. 3 Zheng Wu, "Premarital Cohabitation and Postmarital Cohabiting Union Formation," Journal of Family Issues 16 (1995): 212-232. 4 Alan Booth and David Johnson, "Premarital Cohabitation and Marital Success," Journal of Family Issues 9 (1988): 255-272. 5 Neil Bennett, et al., "Commitment and the Modern Union: Assessing the Link Between Premarital Cohabitation and Subsequent Marital Stability," American Sociological Review 53 (1988): 127-138. 6 Axxinn and Thornton, 1992; 357-374; Bumpass, Sweet and Cherlin, 1991, 913-927; T. R. Balakrishnan, et al., "A Hazard Model of the Co-variaters of Marriage Dissolution in Canada," Demography 24 (1987): 395-406. 7 Michael Newcomb and P. M. Bentler, "Assessment of Personality and Demographic Aspects of Cohabitation and Marital Success," Journal of Personality Assessment 44 (1980) 11-24 8 Margaret Segrest and M. O’Neal Weeks, "Comparison of the Role Expectations of Married and Cohabiting Subjects," International Journal of Sociology of the Family, 6 (1976) 275-281. 9 Kersti Yllo and Murray Straus, "Interpersonal Violence Among Married and Cohabiting Couples," Family Relations 30 (1981) 339-347. 10 Albert Roberts, "Psychosocial Characteristics of Batterers: A Study of 234 Men Charged with Domestic Violence Offenses," Journal of Family Violence 2 (1987): 81-93. 11 Frances Goldscheider, et al., "A Portrait of the Nest-Leaving Process in Early Adulthood," Demography 30 (1993) 683-699. [ return to main selection screen ]
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