Literature Review
Literature Review
College of Community Counseling
Abstract
Throughout history marriage has been considered a state of holy matrimony that bound together two heterosexual people basically till death. This binding contract was accepted and supported by society and the families involved. A person was considered malformed in some way or was in disgrace if they didn’t get married. Cohabitation involves unmarried sexual partners sharing a household. This practice was considered illegal before the 1900’s and is still illegal in some countries today. However, in the last twenty years cohabitation has gone from an obscure social phenomenon to relatively commonplace in the United States. Societal trends are now leaning toward independence instead of marriage and freedom of the individual instead of strength of the union. This poses the question, “Is there a relationship between cohabitation and divorce rate?”
Literature Review
Cohabitation
Cohabitation can be defined as the act of two people involved in an emotionally intimate relationship living together who are not married. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2012), cohabitation has increasingly become the first co residential union formed among couples in America. Cohabitation as a prelude to marriage began emerging in the United States in the 1970s and has continued to increase in prevalence throughout subsequent decades Svarer (2004). This is evidenced by the statistics that approximately 500,000 individuals in the United States were cohabitating in 1970, whereas approximately 4.9 million individuals in the United States were cohabitating in 2000. Accordingly, approximately 55% of marriages in the United States were preceded by cohabitation in the 1990s, while only 10% of marriages were preceded by cohabitation between 1965 and 1974 (Jose, O’Leary, & Moyer, 2010).
As the rate of cohabitation has increased, so has research around this
College of Community Counseling
Abstract
Throughout history marriage has been considered a state of holy matrimony that bound together two heterosexual people basically till death. This binding contract was accepted and supported by society and the families involved. A person was considered malformed in some way or was in disgrace if they didn’t get married. Cohabitation involves unmarried sexual partners sharing a household. This practice was considered illegal before the 1900’s and is still illegal in some countries today. However, in the last twenty years cohabitation has gone from an obscure social phenomenon to relatively commonplace in the United States. Societal trends are now leaning toward independence instead of marriage and freedom of the individual instead of strength of the union. This poses the question, “Is there a relationship between cohabitation and divorce rate?”
Literature Review
Cohabitation
Cohabitation can be defined as the act of two people involved in an emotionally intimate relationship living together who are not married. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2012), cohabitation has increasingly become the first co residential union formed among couples in America. Cohabitation as a prelude to marriage began emerging in the United States in the 1970s and has continued to increase in prevalence throughout subsequent decades Svarer (2004). This is evidenced by the statistics that approximately 500,000 individuals in the United States were cohabitating in 1970, whereas approximately 4.9 million individuals in the United States were cohabitating in 2000. Accordingly, approximately 55% of marriages in the United States were preceded by cohabitation in the 1990s, while only 10% of marriages were preceded by cohabitation between 1965 and 1974 (Jose, O’Leary, & Moyer, 2010).
As the rate of cohabitation has increased, so has research around this
References: Amato, P. R., Cohan, C. L., & Kamp Dush, C. M. (2003). The relationship between cohabitation and marital quality and stability: Change across cohorts? Journal of Marriage and Family, 65(3), 539. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Doss, B. D., Hsueh, A. C., & Morrison, K. R. (2009). Qualitative reports of problems in cohabitating relationships: Comparisons to married and dating relationships. Journal of Family Psychology, 23(2), 236-246. doi: 10.1037/a0015364 Hall, D Miller, A., Sassler, S., & Kusi-Appouh, D. (2011). The Specter of Divorce: Views From Working- and Middle-Class Cohabitors Mollica CM, Maruff P, Vance A. Development of a statistical approach to classifying treatment response in individual children with ADHD. Hum Psychopharmacol-Clin Exp. 2004; 19:445-456. Murrow, C. (2010). The Influence of Cohabitation Purposes on Relationship Quality: An Examination in Dimensions Reinhold, S. (2010). Reassessing the link between premarital cohabitation and marital instability*. Demography, 47(3), 719-33. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/763128673?accountid=34899 Rhoades, G Svarer, M. (2004). Is Your Love in Vain? Another Look at Premarital Cohabitation and Divorce. Journal of Human Resources, 39(2), 523-535.