Reasons to Cohabit

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• Reasons to Cohabit
• Emotional
• if engaged
• if in love
• to share life together
• Practical / Logistics
• lease
• wedding date
• financial/save money
• save on rent while engaged
• Trial for marriage
• get to know each other
• find out how you get along and if you can live
  with each other
• if unsure if ready for marriage
• get used to each other
• only if planning to marry
• lessen the shock of marriage
• better understand how to be married

• Reasons Not to Cohabit
• Personal values / beliefs
• Religious beliefs
• traditional ideals
• Parental Disapproval
• Detrimental to Marriage
• takes away from uniqueness / importance of
  marriage
• delays marriage
• tarnish future marriage
• decrease chance of successful marriage
• Sexual Relationship
• do not approve of premarital sex
• does not uphold the sanctity of marital sexual
  relationship
• Commitment
• does not require enough commitment
• if not committed enough for marriage, not
  committed enough for cohabiting
• w/o commitment of marriage, a breakup is more
  likely
• less permanence

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Important points to know about cohabitation

• The occurrence and acceptability of cohabitation
  is rising in our society
• Both economic and cultural factors have
  contributed to this rise
• Cohabitation has not been primarily a college
  student / young adult phenomenon. Highest rates
  of cohabitation among
• Least educated / lower income
• Previously married
• Cohabitation takes different forms and serves
  different functions across population groups
  race, class, marital status, etc.

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Important points to know about cohabitation

• More research is needed to asses the full impact
  of cohabitation for adults, children and society
• Cohabitation has been linked with relational
  instability and higher divorce rates
• Selection
• Those people who are already tentative about
  marriage or prone to divorce are also more likely
  to cohabit
• Causation
• The experience of cohabiting with a partner has a
  direct influence on your attitudes about marriage
  and divorce, increasing risk of breakup
• Relational patterns from cohabitation carry over
  into marriage (independence vs. interdependence,
  etc.)

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Selection
Cohabitation
Non-traditional attitudes about marriage and
divorce
Poor relationship skills
Higher risk of Divorce
Low education, income, etc.
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Causation
Attitudes about marriage and divorce
Cohabitation
Higher risk of Divorce
Relationship patterns in marriage
Other??
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Selection and Causation
Non-traditional attitudes about marriage and
divorce
Cohabitation
Relationship patterns in marriage
Poor relationship skills
Low education, income, etc.
Higher risk of Divorce
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• Think about what you have learned about dating,
  cohabitation, and marriage from the last three
  readings (Waite Gallagher Smock Glenn
  Marquardt) and from class discussion.
• In what ways do you see the current culture
  surrounding dating, mating and marriage impacting
  your own life experience, either now or in the
  future?
• Have your thoughts, ideas or expectations about
  any of these issues changed at all? If so, in
  what ways?