The Benefits And Consequences Of Cohabitation

Cohabiting

In todays world around 18 million adults in the United States are cohabiting in 2016. Cohabiting is the act of a non-married couple living together. Now only around 18% of the population in the U.S. are cohabiting according to Fry, R., & Cohn, D. (2011, June 26); however, odds are that most people know someone who has or is cohabiting. Many people cohabit but why do they do it? And what are the consequences? No matter who is participating in the cohabitation, most people would still be concerned or at least curious about the economics of this situation. In terms of a financial situation, it all depends on how educated the person is, for example a less educated partner would be less likely to realize the benefits or risks to

On the news there may be an issue of homicide or domestic violence, but more often than not these crimes are not committed between a married couple. American College of Pediatrics (2015, March 27) states that women in cohabiting relationships are nine times more likely to be killed or injured by their partner than a married woman would be. Other than violence, many other issues can be observed between cohabiting couples. Such as the rates of getting married after cohabiting; in the 1970’s the rate of couples getting married after cohabiting was around 60%. However, just twenty years later in the 1990’s the rate of marriage after cohabitation was down to 33%. Apart from not getting married at all, after the fact if the couple does get married after cohabitation there is a 50% more chance of divorce. It is theorized that the cohabitation effect is the main cause for such a sharp chance of divorce. Also according to American College of Pediatrics (2015, March 27), a major cause of divorce among married couples could be the act of being engaged in premarital sex before being married. Participating in this act for women increased the divorce rate to 60%. Rather than just being divorced, cohabitation also carried a gargantuan risk for infidelity, or not being faithful to the other partner in the relationship. This risk is not just as cohabitors but it carries over to marriage if one or both of the

These children don't have to be born into this relationship to feel the effects, actually around ⅓ of the men who cohabit have children from a previous relationship as stated by American College of Pediatrics (2015, March 27). However lots of children are born into these types of relationships, and often cohabiting relationships end up with a child 25% of the time. Sadly almost half of children born into cohabiting relationships experience the separation of the parents. As cohabitation is becoming much more common in the U.S. today the percentage of children who are living in nuclear families has dropped to 47.3%. However, some of these women do not want to be pregnant and thus get an abortion. Nearly 85% of abortions today are performed on unmarried women; and a disheartening 29% are performed on women who are currently cohabiting as specified by American College of Pediatrics (2015, March 27). Also a child who would have been born into a cohabiting relationship between the parents would have ten times the risk of abortion compared to a married couple. Among women who have been pregnant around 41% of those women were previously in two to three cohabiting relationships prior to the pregnancy. It is concerning to think about all the abortions that have occurred due to this, but what happens when the