By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
The results of a new study on cohabitation is adding to the mounting pile of evidence that living together before marriage leads to increased risk of divorce and lower satisfaction in marriage.
According to a report by LifeSiteNews.com, the study was led by Galena Rhoades of the University of Denver and is appearing in the current issue of The Journal of Family Psychology.
Researchers conducted a random telephone survey of 1,050 men and women who were married within the past 10 years and found that 43 percent of those who cohabited before marriage reported lower satisfaction in marriage and a greater potential for divorce than those who cohabited only after marriage (16 %) or not until marriage (40 %).
“We think that some couples who move in together without a clear commitment to marriage may wind up sliding into marriage partly because they are already cohabiting,” Dr. Rhoades said.
“It seems wise to talk about commitment and what living together might mean for the future of the relationship before moving in together, especially because cohabiting likely makes it harder to break up compared to dating,” said researcher Scott Stanley.
To measure the potential of a couple to divorce, study participants were asked, “Have you or your spouse ever seriously suggested the idea of divorce?”
About 19 percent of those who cohabited before getting engaged had suggested divorce compared with just 10 percent of those who did not live together before marriage.
Dr. Rhoades conducted a similar study in February to discover the main reasons why couples were choosing to live together. Citing statistics that reveal almost 70 percent of US couples are cohabiting before marrying, the research team found that more than 60 percent gave spending more time together as the reason for cohabiting, with 19 percent saying “it made most sense financially,” and 14 percent saying they were testing the relationship.
Researchers found that those couples who chose to live together in order to “test” the relationship had the most negative outcomes.
“Cohabiting to test a relationship turns out to be associated with the most problems in relationships,” Rhoades said.
“Perhaps if a person is feeling a need to test the relationship, he or she already knows some important information about how a relationship may go over time.”
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