TimmyHCohabitation now seen as a viable alternative to marriage
June 12th 2008 02:17
A study of cohabitation, marriage and divorce data from 13 different western countries has shown that living together is now viewed as a mainstream alternative to marriage.
The National Marriage Project study sampled Western Europe, Scandinavia and the Commonwealth. The findings suggested that between 15% and 30% of all couples identified themselves as living together. In the US the figure dropped to as little as 10%.
The US is still the most marrying of all these countries, but the data says that the trend is clearly headed in the one common direction, towards cohabitation as a social alternative.
David Popenoe, the report's author and co-director of the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University, which studies marriage and child well-being says that increasing numbers of celebrities are living together.
“Celebrities from Hollywood and elsewhere are looked up to today,” he says. “They have become role models. They are far more influential today than ever in the past.”
A previous study by the National Marriage Project showed that in the past thirty years, the number of Americans living together has increased almost ten fold to 5 million. In other Western countries the rate is much higher.
The information gathered showed that marriage is down in all Western countries except Norway and Sweden. Even the lowest declines, seen in places like the US showed a 20% decline in the marriage rate.
New York author Joselin Linder, 33, of Brooklyn is living with a third boyfriend now. She is the co-author of a new book “The Good Girl's Guide to Living in Sin” and says many women her age and younger view living with a romantic partner as a convenient alternative to marriage.
"It's what's happening in the world of dating, and it's not necessarily a path anywhere," she says. Instead of an alternative to marriage, she believes it could be a stepping stone to the right relationship and could see a similar decline in the divorce rate.
The also says that about 40% of all opposite-sex, unmarried couples live with a child under 18.
R. Kelly Raley, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Texas-Austin and prominent authority on marriage trends says “We often think of cohabitation as a phenomenon of young adulthood before people start having kids, but … as marriage is being delayed to later and later ages, more children are born before marriage, and many of the couples are cohabiting before the birth.”
Raley isn't convinced that cohabitation is being viewed as a marriage alternative. Her own study from 2001, found that people don’t cohabit to start a family, which she says is what would be expected if cohabitation were considered a marriage alternative.
The new report cites findings from other studies which show that children with parents in cohabitation relationships are more likely to experience alcoholism, emotional problems and drug abuse.
"Many cohabiting couples use cohabitation to weather economic uncertainty or uncertainty about a relationship," she Raley. "We can't tell if the negative outcome for the child is due to the cohabitation or to the economic uncertainty or maybe the relationship uncertainty. That's a limitation of the new data."
The National Marriage Project study sampled Western Europe, Scandinavia and the Commonwealth. The findings suggested that between 15% and 30% of all couples identified themselves as living together. In the US the figure dropped to as little as 10%.
On the sand...
The US is still the most marrying of all these countries, but the data says that the trend is clearly headed in the one common direction, towards cohabitation as a social alternative.
David Popenoe, the report's author and co-director of the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University, which studies marriage and child well-being says that increasing numbers of celebrities are living together.
“Celebrities from Hollywood and elsewhere are looked up to today,” he says. “They have become role models. They are far more influential today than ever in the past.”
A previous study by the National Marriage Project showed that in the past thirty years, the number of Americans living together has increased almost ten fold to 5 million. In other Western countries the rate is much higher.
The information gathered showed that marriage is down in all Western countries except Norway and Sweden. Even the lowest declines, seen in places like the US showed a 20% decline in the marriage rate.
Many couples are bringing children to relationships
New York author Joselin Linder, 33, of Brooklyn is living with a third boyfriend now. She is the co-author of a new book “The Good Girl's Guide to Living in Sin” and says many women her age and younger view living with a romantic partner as a convenient alternative to marriage.
"It's what's happening in the world of dating, and it's not necessarily a path anywhere," she says. Instead of an alternative to marriage, she believes it could be a stepping stone to the right relationship and could see a similar decline in the divorce rate.
The also says that about 40% of all opposite-sex, unmarried couples live with a child under 18.
R. Kelly Raley, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Texas-Austin and prominent authority on marriage trends says “We often think of cohabitation as a phenomenon of young adulthood before people start having kids, but … as marriage is being delayed to later and later ages, more children are born before marriage, and many of the couples are cohabiting before the birth.”
Raley isn't convinced that cohabitation is being viewed as a marriage alternative. Her own study from 2001, found that people don’t cohabit to start a family, which she says is what would be expected if cohabitation were considered a marriage alternative.
The new report cites findings from other studies which show that children with parents in cohabitation relationships are more likely to experience alcoholism, emotional problems and drug abuse.
"Many cohabiting couples use cohabitation to weather economic uncertainty or uncertainty about a relationship," she Raley. "We can't tell if the negative outcome for the child is due to the cohabitation or to the economic uncertainty or maybe the relationship uncertainty. That's a limitation of the new data."
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