Cohabitation

Cohabitation

Introduction

Cohabitation is usually defined as an arrangement by which unmarried romantic partners live together in the same household. The partners may be of the same or opposite sex, but the majority of family structure research on the topic has focused on heterosexual unions. Changes in the prevalence and role of cohabitation in union formation have dramatically altered the face of family structure over the past 30 years. For baby boomers who married in the 1960s and 1970s, fewer than 7% of couples lived together before marriage, according to a study by demographers Larry Bumpass and James Sweet. In contrast, NCHS data show that 40% of all women under 45 in 2002 had cohabited. In the United States, cohabitation functions as a short-term arrangement that eventually dissolves or transitions to marriage. Nationally, half of couples separate within 5 years, and 70% of cohabiting couples who remain together marry within 5 years. Few couples remain in a cohabiting union indefinitely.

Discussion

The idea of "testing" before buying a car is a good idea, but does not apply to marriage. Cohabitation is a fiction and not reality resembling marriage. Cohabiting couples usually have a position on the link that says "I can go when want "and" my money vs. your money. " Usually these attitudes not found in married couples. Married couples more often have a stronger bond for the votes they have done. Likewise, married couples tend to have a relationship less volatile than cohabiting. Cohabitation is defined as two people who choose to live together under the same roof with romantic or emotional ties to one another. Traditionally, nonmarital childbearing in the form of cohabitating couples was created as an alternative to marriage that was more affordable. In the past, most cohabitating couples were indeed from less educated backgrounds. However, most recently, there are cohabitating couples that have attended college or even obtained advanced degrees. People live together by choice and no longer by economic necessity alone. They may have children out of wedlock by choice as well. This represents a great change in our perception of the nuclear family. Cohabitating couples may stay couples who live together and raise their children. Kelly Musick indicates that these couples make up 40% of those identified as single parents, which changes the perception of statistics on nonmarital childbearing (Cherlin, 2000).

Some of the concerns that arise from this type of nonmarital childbearing are the legal rights of the parents. As in single motherhood, the mother is typically tied legally to the child from birth. The father in a cohabitating couple may or may not have legal ties to his child from the cohabitating relationship. In addition, there typically is no mention in childbirth statistics of the father in births from such couples; thus, 40% of “single-parent” children are born into families who cohabitate (Kiernan, 2002).

Another concern regarding cohabitating couples is the emotional stability for children. While couples can love each other out of wedlock, there may be discord in the relationship due to financial ...