Sex Science Skeptic

[JeffBooth]

I've read a lot of studies on cohabitation, almost all of them present conclusions that it is a bad idea. This seems strange to me, as almost everyone I know lived together before marriage. Much of it seems biased towards presenting an either/or dichotomy- cohabitation or marriage, but with so many people cohabiting before getting marriage and with a declining divorce rate, the almost exclusively negative conclusions makes little sense to me. There is, of course, a huge bias amongst many to promote the idea of not having sex before marriage, and those folks clearly want proof that cohabitation is bad. Still, the studies I have read seem so uniformly negative with none of the potential positives highlighted- positives that have been a part of my own life and the lives of others I have known.

Does anyone have any enlightening information on the validity, funding, or other background that might explain the following studies:

» The risk of divorce after living together is 50 to 100 percent higher than for couples who have not lived together. (Axxinn & Thornton, 1992)

» Those who have premarital sex are more likely to have extramarital affairs. (Ciavola, 1997; Forste & Tanfer 1996)

» Cohabiting couples argue, shout and hit each other more than married couples. (Penn State University, Brown & Booth, 1997)

» Women are 62 times more likely to be assaulted by a live-in boyfriend than by a husband. (U.S. Justice Department, Colson, 1995)

» Cohabiting women have rates of depression three times higher than married women.

» Those who live together are at a higher risk for contracting sexually transmitted diseases, which have tripled in the past six years. (Ciavola, 1997)

» Premarital sex creates emotional baggage that lays the groundwork for comparisons, suspicions and mistrust. (Laumann, et.al, 1994)