Cohabitation

Paper Summary:

In this paper the author explores the declining significance of marriage and the increasing acceptance of premarital sex, cohabitation and unmarried childbearing. The author looks at the importance of family to Americans despite the decline in marriage and analyses the implications of cohabitation before marriage and the impact it can have on children and society. He defines cohabitation and looks at statistics of how long cohabitation lasts and what it can lead to, separation or marriage. In conclusion the author states that marriage has lost its primacy as the visible hub of the family but the issue of main concern is the one of social change and how family patterns express and contribute to this change.

From the Paper:

"According to common understanding, the idea of premarital cohabitation is for the couples to learn about each other and increase their chances for a successful marriage. Although this is what it suggests, the evidence however takes a turn for the opposite. Premarital cohabitation ends up in lower marital quality and higher risk of divorce. Two explanations have been posed to explain the association. The first is termed the selection explanation. This refers to the idea that people who cohabit before marriages do so because of their non traditional values and attitudes or poor relationship skills which increases the risk of marital instability. The second explanation is that there is disruption of one's characteristics from the beginning of the cohabitation."

More papers on Cohabitation:

• Article Review # 144224 : "The Cohabitation Epidemic"
• Term Paper # 103196 : "Cohabitation in the United States"
• Term Paper # 104123 : "Cohabitation, Divorce and Stepfamilies"

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