Review lists ten ill-effects of cohabitation
In a recent Irish Times survey 74% of women said they agreed that it was “a good idea for couples to live together for a period of time before they decide to marry.”
No reasons were given for this view, but the September issue of the US Catholic journal, New Oxford Review, carried a review of research on the ill-effects of cohabitation.
Dr A Patrick Schneider II began with Chuck Colson’s remark that “cohabitation is training for divorce,” then listed “Ten Facts” from the research. He reported that in the US:
Review lists ten ill-effects of cohabitation
In a recent Irish Times survey 74% of women said they agreed that it was “a good idea for couples to live together for a period of time before they decide to marry.”
No reasons were given for this view, but the September issue of the US Catholic journal, New Oxford Review, carried a review of research on the ill-effects of cohabitation.
Dr A Patrick Schneider II began with Chuck Colson’s remark that “cohabitation is training for divorce,” then listed “Ten Facts” from the research. He reported that in the US:
1. Cohabitation is now 11 times as common as it was in the 1960s.
2. Only one-sixth of cohabiting couples are together after three years; one in ten survives five or more years.
3. The divorce rate of those who cohabit prior to marriage is nearly double (39% vs. 21%) that of couples who did not cohabit.
4. Women often end up with the responsibilities of marriage—particularly when there are children—without the legal protection, and contribute 70% of the couple’s income.
5. The rate of sexually transmitted diseases among cohabiting couples is six times higher than among married women. Cohabiting men are four times more likely to be unfaithful than husbands.
6. Marriages preceded by cohabitation are more prone to drug and alcohol problems. Depression is three times more likely in cohabiting couples than among married couples.
7. Cohabitors who never marry have 78% less wealth than the continuously married.
8. Compared to children of married parents, children aged 12-17 with cohabiting parents are six times more likely to have emotional and behavioural problems and are more likely to be expelled from school.
The poverty rate among children of cohabiting couples is five times the rate of children in married households. They also have fewer grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins; the family tree is pruned.
9. In the US 3 out of 4 children involved in criminal activity were from cohabiting homes. 70% of juveniles in state-run institutions are from fatherless homes.
10. Rates of serious abuse of children are lowest in intact families; 6 times higher in stepfamilies; 20 times higher in cohabiting biological-parent families; and 33 times higher when the mother is cohabiting with a boyfriend who is not the father.
Compared to a married woman, a cohabiting woman is 3 times more likely to experience physical aggression, and 9 times more likely to be murdered.
