Cohabitation lecture outline

Transcription

1 Cohabitation

2 Cohabitation lecture outline Cohabitation trends Causes of the increase in cohabitation Reasons for cohabitation Cohabitation and divorce Harm to children

3 Cohabitation lecture outline Cohabitation trends Causes of the increase in cohabitation Reasons for cohabitation Cohabitation and divorce Harm to children

4 Cohabitation trends Cohabitation is the term used to describe two people living together in a sexual relationship of some permanence, without being married to one another.

5 Cohabitation trends Forty years ago cohabitation was considered immoral, living in sin, and highly improper Women who provided sexual and housekeeping services to a man without the benefits of marriage were regarded as fools and morally loose Cohabiting men were not seen so negatively Cohabitation was illegal in all 50 states prior to about 1970 Although the law is seldom enforced, it remains illegal in a number of states.

6 Cohabitation trends Increasing numbers of people are cohabiting. Most young Americans will spend some time cohabiting In 2002, 61 percent of women between ages 35 and 39 had ever cohabited.

7 The number of opposite sex couples who live together has jumped from less than one million 30 years ago to 6.4 million in 2007.

8 Cohabitation trends The number of cohabiters who eventually marry is decreasing. Cohabitation as an alternative to marriage is increasing in northern European countries.

9 Cohabitation trends An increasing proportion of babies born out of wedlock are born to cohabiting couples. Young children are more likely than ever before to live with parents who are cohabiting but who are not legally married to each another.

10 Cohabitation lecture outline Cohabitation trends Causes of the increase in cohabitation Reasons for cohabitation Cohabitation and divorce Harm to children

11 Causes of the increase in cohabitation What caused the increase? puberty begins at an earlier age and marriages take place at older ages there is this extended period of time where young people will be sexually active before first marriage material affluence young people are financially able to live apart from their parents in order to save money, young people may cohabit to share the costs of rent, food, utilities, and so on

12 Causes of the increase in cohabitation stigma has virtually been revoked in part related to society becoming more secular people are bit more cautious before getting married fully aware of the high divorce rate, they want to try it out first to make sure that it will work a way of avoiding divorce or being trapped in an unhappy marriage for men and women, marriage is becoming less necessary and desirable cohabiting relationships tend to be more egalitarian (better for women) and provide more personal autonomy

13 Cohabitation lecture outline Cohabitation trends Causes of the increase in cohabitation Reasons for cohabitation Cohabitation and divorce Harm to children

14 Reasons for cohabitation In research by Bumpass et al. (1991), the following are reasons that couples gave for cohabitation: to ensure compatibility before marriage (see next slide) to share expenses more independence more satisfying less commitment (see next slide)

15

16 Reasons for cohabitation most young people see cohabitation as trial marriage 62% (all participants) agree that living together with someone before marriage is a good way to avoid an eventual divorce (Popenoe and Whitehead) find out more about the habits, character, and fidelity of a partner

17 Reasons for cohabitation provides valuable life lessons not interested in marriage the number of couples who see cohabitation as an end in itself rather than a trial marriage is increasing Most young people come to live together by drifting into it.

18 Cohabitation lecture outline Cohabitation trends Causes of the increase in cohabitation Reasons for cohabitation Cohabitation and divorce Harm to children

19 Cohabitation and divorce Jay Teachman, in his analysis of federal data on 6577 women whose first marriages occurred between 1970 and 1995 found that a woman who had lived only with their future spouse had no greater risk of divorce.

20 Cohabitation and divorce Daniel Lichter found that divorce rates for those who cohabit more than once are more than twice as high as for women who cohabited only with their eventual husbands. Lichter also found that the odds of divorce among women who married their only cohabiting partner was 28 percent lower than among women who never cohabited before marriage.

21 Cohabitation lecture outline Cohabitation trends Causes of the increase in cohabitation Reasons for cohabitation Cohabitation and divorce Harm to children

22 Harm to children fully three quarters of children born to cohabiting parents will see their parents split up before they reach age sixteen poverty compared to children living with married biological parents, children living with cohabiting but unmarried biological parents are 20 times more likely to be subject to child abuse

23 Harm to children According to a study of Missouri abuse reports published in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2005, children living in households with unrelated adults are nearly 50 times as likely to die of inflicted injuries as children living with two biological parents.

24 Reasons for the marriage benefit the long-term contract implicit in marriage the greater sharing of economic and social resources by married couples the better connection of married couples to the larger community

25 Cohabitation lecture outline Cohabitation trends Causes of the increase in cohabitation Reasons for cohabitation Cohabitation and divorce Harm to children

26 Possible midterm question Who is more likely to get a divorce at some point in the life cycle? people whose parents never divorced people who cohabit more than once before marriage people who marry at an older age people with children people with children under the age of twelve

27 Possible midterm question Cohabiting couples are increasing in the United States. Which of the following cohabiting unions is most likely to marry? an African American couple in which the man completed high school, but the woman dropped out of school in the ninth grade a childless couple who are both physicians a low-income couple who have two children a white man and woman who dropped out of high school a first-generation Hispanic man and woman who rely on their parents for financial support