Cohabitation Essay

Marriage and cohabitation play a central role in how family life is carried out. The way in which society views marriage and cohabitation is changing as individualism becomes an increasingly mainstream ideal. Marriage rates have decreased significantly on average over the past 60 years, but different groups show different rates of change. While certain sects each have their views, the general trends are showing decreasing marriage rates in lower income individuals, and increasing marriage rates in higher income educated individuals. These rates are directly connected to racial-ethnic groups, leading to larger gaps in socioeconomic status. As we know, income often is related to race and ethnicity. According to Figure 8.5 in Cohen (2015:273),

This may be due to ideological opposition, family opposition, religious opposition, or societal condemnation due to differences in race, religion, gender or class. Sometimes it is also the case where one partner is interested in marriage, and the other is opposed due to one of the above factors. Finally, another common version of cohabitation is after-marriage cohabitation. People who have become divorced or widowed are often older individuals who want companionship or financial stability, but are not looking for the risk or commitment of marriage. At these older ages, women outnumber men due to average age of death. In this case, men are less motivated to risk a marriage, so women are often forced to compromise with cohabitation. Regardless, men and women seem to benefit from the companionship in the later years of life, especially after years of having a partner in

I feel the need to have individual space, and would have a hard time committing to sharing a bedroom, apartment, or sharing certain financial burdens with a romantic partner. It seems like a more reasonable option than marriage, because I do not feel a binding commitment by law, but it would still require a lot of consideration before it happened for me. My parents and family would like me to have a family of my own, and they believe I will. I understand their hopes and perhaps my views will change, but the pressure coming from my family will not sway my core values of