Cohabitation and its Effect on Marital Stability in the US
analytical Essay
1723 words
Cohabitation and its Effect on Marital Stability in the US Unmarried heterosexual cohabitation has increased sharply in the recent years in the United States. It has in fact become so prevalent that the majority of marriages and remarriages now begin as cohabiting relationships, and most young men and women cohabit at some point in their lives. It has become quite clear that understanding and incorporating cohabitation into sociological analyses and thinking, is crucial for evaluating family patterns, people’s lifestyles, children’s wellbeing and social changes more broadly. This essay presents some common explanation for cohabitation’s dramatic rise and identifies some analytic questions as to how cohabitation is increasingly a major barrier in the marital stability in the United States. Cohabitation, over the last two decades has gone from being a relatively uncommon social phenomenon to a commonplace one and has achieved this prominence quite quickly. A few sets of numbers convey both the change and its rapidity. The percentage of marriages preceded by cohabitation rose from about 10% for those marrying between 1965 and 1974 to over 50% for those marrying between 1990 and 1994 (Bumpass and Lu 1999, Bumpass & Sweet 1989); the percentage is even higher for remarriages. Secondly, the percentage of women in their late 30s who report having cohabited at least once rose from 30% in 1987 to 48% in 1995. Given a mere eight year tome window, this is a striking increase. Finally, the proportion of all first unions (including both marriages and cohabitation) that begin as cohabitations rose from 46% for unions formed between 1980 and 1984 to almost 60% for those formed between 1990 and 1994 (Bumpass and Lu 1999). Various aspe... ... middle of paper ... ... stepfamilies: implications of cohabitation and nonmarital childbearing. Demography 32:425 36 Bumpass LL, Sweet JA. 1989. National estimates of cohabitation. Demography 26:615 25 Bumpass LL, Sweet JA, Cherlin A. 1991. The role of cohabitation in declining rates of marriage. Demography 53:913 27 Goode WJ. 1963. World Revolution and Family Patterns. New York: Free Manning WD, Smock PJ. 1997. Children's living arrangements in unmarried-mother families. J. Fam. Issues 18:526 44 Nock SL. 1995. A comparison of marriages and cohabiting relationships. J. Fam. Issues 16:53 76 Rindfuss RR, VandenHeuvel A. 1990. Cohabitation: a precursor to marriage or an alternative to being single? Pop. Dev. Rev. 16:703 26 Thornton A. 1991. Influence of the marital history of parents on the marital and cohabitation experiences of children. Am. J. Sociol. 96:868 94
In this essay, the author
- Explains that premarital cohabitation tends to be associated with lower marital quality and to increase the risk of divorce, even after taking into account variables known as divorce.
- Analyzes bumpass ll, sweet ja, and cherlin a. the role of cohabitation in declining rates of marriage.
- Analyzes how cohabitation has become a major barrier to marital stability in the united states.
- Explains that premarital cohabitation tends to be associated with lower marital quality and to increase the risk of divorce, even after taking into account variables known as divorce.
- Analyzes bumpass ll, sweet ja, and cherlin a. the role of cohabitation in declining rates of marriage.
- Analyzes how cohabitation has become a major barrier to marital stability in the united states.
- Argues that cohabitation is either an experimental stage in the marriage process or a substitute for marriage.
- Cites axinn wg, thornton a. 1993, mothers, children, and cohabitation: the intergenerational effects of attitudes and behavior.
- Explains manning wd, smock pj, nock sl, rindfuss rr, vandenheuvel a. 1990. cohabitation: a precursor to marriage or an alternative to being single?
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1851 wordsRead More - The Risks of Premarital Cohabitationexplanatory essayIt is not a new thought that today’s young Americans are facing issues, problems and difficult decisions that past generations never had to question. In a world of technology, media, and a rough economy, many young adults in America are influenced by a tidal wave of opinions and life choices without much relevant advice from older generations. The Generation Y, or Millennial, group are coming of age in a confusing and mixed-message society. One of these messages that bombard young Americans is the choice of premarital cohabitation. Premarital cohabitation, or living together without being married (Jose, O’Leary & Moyer, 2010), has increased significantly in the past couple of decades and is now a “natural” life choice before taking the plunge into marriage. Kennedy and Bumpass (2008) state that, “The increase in cohabitation is well documented,such that nearly two thirds of newlyweds have cohabited prior to their first marriage”(as cited in Harvey, 2011, p. 10), this is a striking contrast compared with statistics of our grandparents, or even parents, generations. It is such an increasing social behavior that people in society consider cohabitation “necessary” before entering into marriage. Even more, young Americans who choose not to cohabitate, for many different reasons, are looked upon as being “old-fashioned”, “naive”, or “unintelligent”. This pressure for young people to cohabitate before marriage is a serious “modern-day” challenge; especially when given research that states, “... most empirical studies find that couples who cohabited prior to marriage experience significantly higher odds of marital dissolution than their counterparts who did not cohabit before marriage”, stated by Jose (2010) and colleagues (as c...
In this essay, the author
- Explains that young americans are influenced by a tidal wave of opinions and life choices without much relevant advice from older generations. premarital cohabitation has increased significantly in the past couple of decades.
- Explains that premarital cohabiting individuals view cohabitation as the "safe" choice without realizing that many are setting their relationship's up for failure.
- Explains that premarital cohabitating couples in the united states plan on getting married within a five year time frame, with 44% ending their relationship within five years.
- Explains that young americans are influenced by a tidal wave of opinions and life choices without much relevant advice from older generations. premarital cohabitation has increased significantly in the past couple of decades.
- Explains that premarital cohabiting individuals view cohabitation as the "safe" choice without realizing that many are setting their relationship's up for failure.
- Explains that premarital cohabitating couples in the united states plan on getting married within a five year time frame, with 44% ending their relationship within five years.
- Explains that demographics, such as age, economic and educational levels, are taken into consideration when examining couples, and the outcome and quality of their relationship. scholars have distinguished two likely explanations for why cohabitation doesn't end in successful and high quality marriages.
- Explains the selection effect, which means that individuals come into a relationship with certain qualities and beliefs about relationships that may prove dysfunctional with time.
- Explains that the cohabitation effect, or the experience explanation, is the only behavior of living together before marriage that has a negative effect on individuals psych and attitude toward their partner and their relationship.
- Explains that not all people are affected in the same positive or negative ways when cohabiting. age, maturity, length of relationship before and during cohabitation, upbringing, economic and educational levels, all play a factor.
- Explains that cohabitation is more common among those of lower educational and income levels, according to "the state of our union project".
- Opines that young people's money saving strategy is a benefit, basing their cohabitation, and the stresses that come with it, on monetary value.
- Explains that low economic status coupled with cohabitation results in a two in three greater chance of having children. monetary stressors, magnified due to the poor economy, encourage premarital cohabitation, but this decision tends to create new relational issues.
- Explains that premarital cohabitation continues for many reasons and effects individuals in different ways, but four possible reasons have emerged from scholarly research that suggest that the current american society is to blame.
- Explains that popular shows such as "friends" and "new girl" paint an exciting and romantic picture of premarital cohabitation and sexual activity for film goers.
- Explains that the media's number one concern is to create audiences and to sell their product and in doing so influence and create culture.
- Analyzes leon festinger's cognitive dissonance theory, which states that people have an 'aversive drive' that causes people to avoid opposing viewpoints, seek reassurance, and change private beliefs to match public behavior.
- Explains that americans are losing or turning away from religious practices, citing pew forum's u.s. religious landscape survey.
- Argues that loss of religion in america has influenced the growth of cohabitation.
- Explains that children of divorced parents have a higher chance of premarital cohabitation in their lives. many millennials saw their parent’s relationships end in divorce before the age of twenty.
- Explains that the social exchange theory, introduced by albert bandura, is defined as the role of observation and the mimicking or imitating of behaviors observed in others.
- Explains that divorced children are more likely to cohabitate before marriage. however, cohabitation is not an effective way to increase your odds of success in marriage and may even increase the chances of eventual divorce.
- Explains that american society has been infiltrated with the lie that "premarital cohabitation is the safe decision". the pressure that non-cohabitating individuals feel increases the percentage of cohabitors.
- Explains that the nuclear family's structure has disintegrated and been reshaped into an unstable relational environment. premarital cohabitation results in higher rates of marriage dissolution.
- Recommends self-assessing personal cohabitation decisions and expose the lie.
- Opines that to expose the lie means to accept scholarly research that strongly discourages premarital cohabitation. it is easy for individuals to talk themselves into behaviors or life choices that are not good decisions.
- Cites bandura, a., crowther, l. and friedinger's cognitive dissonance theory.
- Cites gerbner, g., and hardy, m. on the effects of media on children.
- Explains the possible consequences of divorce for children. utah divorce orientation, utah state university.
- Cites manning, cohen, and mccombs, m. (2012). premarital cohabitation and marital dissolution.
- Explains pew forum's u.s. religious landscape survey.
- Cites thornton, a. department of health and human services. attitudes, values andnorms related to nonmarital fertility.
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