Study: Living together (before marriage) may lead to breakup

sbcanada

New Member
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Couples in the United States who live together before marrying may be more likely to consider divorce than those who do not, according to a study released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's health statistics division.

The study's findings are based on interviews conducted in 1995 with about 11,000 women ages 15 to 44.

Couples who did not live together before marrying had a 31 percent chance of splitting up after 10 years, compared with a 40 percent chance for couples who cohabited before marriage, the study found.

One of the study's authors said the report did not draw the conclusion that living together before marriage was the cause of the relationship ending.

"It may not be the experience of cohabiting but the people who cohabit," said William Mosher.

"What we're saying about that is that we think that couples who cohabit before marriage may have different values than couples who do not," he said.

Couples who live together before marriage may be the type of people who are "more likely to consider divorce," he explained.

The CDC's National Center for Health Statistics report also compared the success rates for marriage and pre-marital cohabitation.

It found that the probability of a first marriage ending in separation or divorce within five years is 20 percent, compared with the 49 percent probability of a pre-marital cohabitation breaking up within the same time period.

After 10 years, the study found, a first marriage has a 33 percent chance of ending compared with a 62 percent chance for cohabitations.

The data suggested that a woman's age, whether she comes from an intact two-parent home, the importance of religion in her life, and economic factors also play a part in how long a marriage or cohabitation will last.

The study also found that the likelihood that divorced women will remarry has been declining over the past 50 years. According to the 1995 data, women who divorced in the 1980s had a 50 percent chance of remarrying compared with 65 percent in the 1950s.

The study also found that white women who have separated from their spouses are more likely to end the relationship in divorce than are Hispanic or black women, and women living in prosperous communities are more likely to do so than those in poorer neighborhoods.

Source:
http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/07/24/cdc.marriagereport/index.html
 
Geez... this study comes out every three months and gets touted like its amazing and spellbinding research. I agree with it in any case.
 
Oh shit, I lived with my wife before we got married, think I'll just go ahead and divorce her now, save the time and effort of a long nasty divorce, this way we can do it while we still like each other. :headbang:
 
Studies are stupid. In a few years they'll do another one and this one will be disproved.

Btw, is it healthy to eat eggs this year, or not? :rolleyes:
 
*whew* .. it's a lucky thing we don't technically live together ku'u ... cause then, I'd have to divorce you too :D
 
Couldn't it also be saying something about the type of people who don't live together first? Like maybe they're a conservative type that would stick through a failed disfunctional relationship as opposed to someone else that would leave an emotionally abusive partner?

See, you can twist these things however you want.
 
thats true in my soc classes and psych classes i learned people can and sometimes do mess with the test or results and cant totally be trusted although they are very accurate, take it with a grain of salt. yes ku it is healthy to eat eggs this year but just you wait til the next study. and i agree they are overdoing this kind of study year after year.
 
It doesn't say how long the couples co-habitated before being married either. I don't think anyone should marry someone else without being with them for two years, at the least. Feelings wane and people change, you need quite a long time to get through that and make sure they're the person you want to spend the rest of your life with.

Or you could just depend on divorce like so many people do these days.
 
They spend so much money on stupid studies. It woudl be a valid study if they studied WHY the couples divorce. they are looking at ONE variable and the only way for it to be accuracte is for the survey group to be basically the same in everyother way. (time together, # of previous relationships/mariiages, etc)
 
Nixy said:
They spend so much money on stupid studies. It woudl be a valid study if they studied WHY the couples divorce. they are looking at ONE variable and the only way for it to be accuracte is for the survey group to be basically the same in everyother way. (time together, # of previous relationships/mariiages, etc)

Nixy, I wish they could figure out the reasons why, but even if they did, there would still be a large number ending in divorce. Marriages start with both parties willing to accept each other, good or bad. Unfortunatly, some people just quit accepting the others faults, or their faults get worse, and their partner just can't deal with them anymore.
 
They don't even have to discover the cause of divorce because there's prolly no situation in which EVERYONE in that situation will get divroced. They should look at more variables than just cohabitation though to come to the conclusion that cohabitators have a higher divorce rate. All of the "extra" people who get divorced who have also cohabitated could also have something else in comment that the other cohabitators don't and that coudl be the cause.
 
Couldn't it also be saying something about the type of people who don't live together first?


Yes.



One of the study's authors said the report did not draw the conclusion that living together before marriage was the cause of the relationship ending.

"It may not be the experience of cohabiting but the people who cohabit," said William Mosher.

"What we're saying about that is that we think that couples who cohabit before marriage may have different values than couples who do not," he said.

There are always exceptions to the rule. My wife and I lived together for about a year, and I'd like to think that our marriage is stronger than most.
 
I made marriage as a way to have what each wants. The woman gets stability and the man gets sex. This is a gross oversimplification of the matter yet it is true nonetheless. If you would pay attention to what you are obliging yourself to, 'til death do us part, sickness and health, richer or poorer, those things are there for a reason. In 923, it made sense for adults of 12 to get married, thay would die before they were 30. In 1678, the same held true yet the age increased slightly, to about 16. In 2002, nobody knows themselves, much less a life partner, until they are well into their 20's. Do not rush into marriage. Because I expect you and your spouse to agree to and live with the boundries set by marriage. Nobody said it was easy. :biker:
 
Back
Top