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While cohabitation is very popular, historically research has suggested that non-legal relationships aren’t as solid as those that come complete with the wedding ring and marriage certificate. However, according to recent research living together to “test drive” a relationship or marriage shouldn’t hurt the marriage at all. In fact there is new evidence, which supports that premarital cohabitation alone has very little impact on the longevity of a relationship.
CNBC published an article titled, “Best Predictor of Divorce? Age when couples Cohabit, Study Says.” The article focuses on a new study by associate professor Arielle Kuperberg from the University of North Carolina. The article notes that the biggest predictor of divorce is actually the age at which a couple begins living together, regardless of whether they move in together before or after marriage. Researches suggest that couples who begin living together younger than 23 years of age are most likely to split up down the road.
The article explains the reality of 21st century marriage as follows:
“Marriages require much more maturity than they once did,” she says. In the 1950s, husband and wives stepped into well-defined gender rolls. “Nowadays, people come to marriage with independent aspirations and much greater ideas of equality. Maturity is so important, and negotiating skills are so much more important.”
The article also quotes Sharon Sassler, a professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., who says there are a host of education and financial factors that may contribute to a divorce. She explains that those with higher education levels tend to take longer to move in with their partners, and half of college-educated women moved in with their partners after at least a year; one-third were romantically involved for two years before joining houses.
The takeaway from the article is that this new research is turning conventional wisdom on it’s head, and it is changing the way we view cohabitation before marriage. For decades research has shown that cohabitation leads to divorce, and for the first time there is actual evidence that disproves that presumption.