Cohabitating is Less Stable than Marriage
A study by the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
found that couples who live together are less likely to stay together than
are couples who marry. The report, "Cohabitation, Marriage, Divorce,
and Remarriage in the United States,"said that by the age of 30, three-quarters
of women in the U.S. have been married, and about half have cohabited outside
of marriage.
The findings, based on interviews conducted in 1995 with nearly 11, 2000 women
between the ages of 15 and 44, focused on both individual and community factors
associated with long-term marriages, divorce,
and separation. The study also looked at conditions associated with cohabitation,
and the impact that such a lifestyle has on marital stability.
Dr. Ed Sondick, director of CDC‚s National Center for Health Statistics,said
that the analysis went "beyond the basic bookends‚ of marriage and
divorce to look more closely at how the issue of cohabitation impacts the
life of a relationship."
The study found that the likelihood of a first marriage ending in separation
or divorce within five years is 20 percent, while the probability of a pre-marital
cohabitation ending in a breakup within five years is 49 percent. After 10
years, those figures rise to 33 percent and 62 percent, respectively.
According to the study, the probability that a divorced woman would marry
within five years of her divorce was 54 percent (58 percent for white women,
44 percent for Hispanic women, and 32 percent for black women). However, there
was a 23 percent probability that a second marriage would end in divorce after
five years, and a 39 percent
likelihood that it would end after ten years.
The study also found that there has been a significant decline in divorce
and remarriage among women since the 1950s (65 percent in the 1950s, 50 percent
in 1995).
Factors for women that contribute to a lasting marriage include: a woman‚s
age at the time she first married; whether she was raised in an intact home
with a mother and father; whether religion plays a major role in her life;
and whether she has a higher family income or lives in a community with a
high median family income as well as low male unemployment and low poverty.