Cohabiting Does Not Lead to Good Marriage

If more and more people are hoping that cohabitation improves their chances of being happily married later, evidence is rapidly mounting that indicates they will be disappointed.  Columnist William R. Mattox, Jr., for example, cited recent research that challenges the wisdom of living together.  Results include:

*A woman who is living with a man is more than twice as likely to wind up as a victim of domestic violence (Washington State University researcher Jan Stets).

*Women who are cohabiting suffer from depression at rates more than three times that of married women (National Institute of Mental Health).

*Sexual anxiety is more characteristic of this less permanent living arrangement, rather than sexual freedom, and the absence of an enduring commitment tends to actually hinder sexual satisfaction (UCLA researchers Stuart Perlman and Paul Abrahamson).

*Couples who lived together and then married report less satisfaction in their marriage than other couples (National Institute of Healthcare Research).

*Cohabiting couples who then get married have a significantly higher rate of divorce than those who did not live together first (University of Denver researcher Scott Stanley).

American Family Association Journal, September 1998, p.9