The Effects of Cohabitating Before Marriage

Girl meets boy. Girl and boy fall in love. Then they start spending the night at each other's place. They then get a fantastic idea that they should just move in together since they are already spending lots of time at each other's place. Is cohabitating really a good choice in a relationship? It is rising faster than marriage so it seems like it would be a wise step to take. (Taylor, 2003). However, once a couple is cohabitating, more than likely they will break up soon after. Most cohabitation relationships are terminated in less than two years (Brown, 2005). How could cohabitation be so destructive when the dating was so perfect? Even though some have a sad ending, not all are destined for failure. There are many factors that can determine the fall of a relationship. If both mates work on these factors then this fall can obviously be avoided. Considering the many cons of cohabitation, moving in together may not be such a great choice.

Cohabitation has dramatically increased over the years. Only five percent of single women in the mid 1960s lived with a man before marriage but by the 1990s, the percentage of women rose to seventy percent ("The Facts Behind Cohabitation"). The number of households containing unmarried couples also grew. Households with people living together and not married increased seventy-two percent from 1990 to 2000 (Lamanna & Riedmann, 2006) Even though the population of cohabitating couples has significantly risen, this does not mean that everyone is doing it. In 2000, Sara Terry, who wrote an article about cohabitation, said that only seven percent of couples in America lived with each other (Terry, 2000).