Cohabitation - Contemporary Objections To Cohabitation Before Marriage

Contemporary Objections To Cohabitation Before Marriage

There has been a documented increase in the number of cohabiting couples in the last fifty years. In 1960, there were approximately 450,000 couples cohabiting in the United States; by 2011, the number had increased to 7.5million. Because of the dramatic increase in the number of cohabiting couples, there are fewer objections to this kind of relationship than there were in the 1960s. Contemporary objections to cohabiting couples center around three primary topics; religion, social pressure, and the effect of cohabitation on a child’s development.

Religious reasons are a primary factor cited by people for the opposition of cohabitation. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam have stances of opposition to cohabitation. These religious groups agree that cohabitation before marriage is a violation of their moral beliefs on the sanctity of a sexual relationship between a man and a women outside of marriage. “Pre-marital, extra-marital and same-sex relationships are all forbidden in Islam.” While most members of these groups don’t adhere to the strict nature of their religious organization’s belief on cohabitation, the pressure from other members of the group or religious authorities lead to a drop in cohabitation. Pope John Paul II felt that, “de facto free unions, i.e., those unions without any publicly recognized institutional bond, are an increasing concern.” As for the Jewish perspective, “For example, normative Judaism forcefully rejects the claim that never marrying is an equally valid lifestyle to marriage. Judaism states that a life without marrying is a less holy, less complete, and a less Jewish life.”

Religion can also lead to societal pressures against cohabitation especially within large Evangelical Christian communities. “Researchers have posited many ideas about why cohabitation has increased in the United States and how the beliefs or opinions of others might affect one’s decision to cohabit. Some have noted that a decline in religious authority and changes in religious structures have accompanied the rise in cohabitation.” In addition to Religious pressures, there are familial pressures that prevent cohabitation. Young adults that grew up in families that oppose cohabitation have lower rates than their peers.

Finally, there has been an increase in the research performed on the relationship between cohabitation and its effect on child development. People have opposed cohabitation because they believed that it led to an unstable environment for a child’s development. Some Studies have shown a decrease in math skills and an increase in delinquency among children of cohabiting couples. However, when other environmental influences like poverty, low education of the parent, and violence in the home are controlled; children of cohabiting couples are developmentally similar to their peers from a two parent family.