Marriage and Cohabitation

            From 1987 to 2002, the percentages of couples who had ever cohabited doubled from 30% to 61% (Turner). Cohabitation over the years has become common, particularly among young people and also individuals who dissolved their marriages through divorce. Marriage on the other hand has been experiencing a downward trend among the young people over the years. However, one cannot simply assume that one trend is the cause of the other because the relationship may be spurious and may represent no direct relationship. Cohabitation before marriage which has become popular, is redefining cultural expectations. For instance, cohabitation has affected marriage timing, has affected family values and, has had an impact on the children of cohabiters. So, cohabitation has really changed society's views of marriage.
             Cohabitation has affected timing of marriage. "Because cohabitation offers many benefits of marriage, including the pooling of resources and daily intimate family living, many couples may feel that living together without marriage provides a reasonable alternative to marriage" (Qu 3). In fact, this might lower their desire to get married. Moreover, lower motivation to marry may also be associated with the fear that the transition from cohabitation to marriage leads to a loss of autonomy. A study done by Bumpass, Sweet and Cherlin who are professors of sociology, found one third of cohabiting men would feel that they would have less autonomy if they marry their partner and one sixth of cohabiting women feel the same (Bumpass). From this we can summarize that uncertainty about future marital plans may hinder marriage timing. So, according to all this information cohabitation may delay marriage timing.
             Cohabitation may affect the quality of marriage. According to the department of sociology at the University of Wisconsin, "cohabiters tend to be less traditional, more individualistic and more accepting of divorce than those who enter directly into marriage, and these factors are associated with future marital problems and union dissolution.