Preview

Analysis Of The Downside Of Cohabiting Before Marriage

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
277 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Analysis Of The Downside Of Cohabiting Before Marriage
Cohabiting couples cannot just live their lives satisfied, comfortable, and in a better financial position, also their kids can live comfortably with a good role model. Meg Jay, author of “The Downside of Cohabiting before Marriage” points out a great fact about marriage that contradicts Doe’s definition of how easy to get divorce. Jay shows the difficulty of getting out of marriage when she says, “Lock-in is the decreased likelihood to search for, or change to, another option once an investment in something has been made.” (Jay, 251). Even though she points out a great point about marriage being the right kind of relationship if someone wants a long-term commitment, it can also harm the parents and their future child in the long run. To elaborate

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    One reason is changing social attitudes. Religion regarded cohabitation as ‘living in sin’, but today there is less shame attached to it. Barlow et al found increasing acceptance of cohabitation. This shows that the change in religions social attitude, cohabitation is accepted more, leading to an increase in cohabitation. Some people prefer love that focuses of on intimacy, closeness and emotion rather than the duties of marriage. Giddens argues that there has been a trend towards confluent love. This love focuses on the intimacy, closeness and emotion of a relationship, rather than the feelings of obligation and duty that is in vows at marriage. When a marriage no longer has confluent love, the relationship is likely to end. This shows that monogamy may start being replaced by serial monogamy, in which cohabitation is most suited to. However, the ONS found that 60% of cohabiting couples will eventually end in marriage showing that monogamy can often replace serial monogamy. There is less pressure to follow traditional norms and values. Beck and Beck-Gernshiem argue that individualism has led to changing attitudes towards cohabitation and marriage. There is less pressure to follow the norms and values around love and relationships set by family, religion or culture. This shows that the change in attitudes has led to people making their own decision about whether they marry or cohabitate. The acceptance of sex outside marriage has made it more likely that cohabitation will occur. Allan and Crow argue that effective contraception has made it possible for partners to cohabit without fear of pregnancy. This alongside the acceptance of sex before marriage means cohabitation without marriage is likely to occur. This shows that the change in social attitudes towards sex outside of marriage has led to an increase in cohabitation.…

    • 585 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    “When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” This beautiful quote is from the comedy, When Harry Met Sally. After Harry recited this line to Sally, she fell into his arms and began to passionately kiss him. This quote is not just about love, it also explains cohabitation and marriage. When couples fall in love they want to spend the rest of their lives together, just like Harry and Sally. After a person thinks about beginning the next chapter of their life with the one they love, two choices arise. One can marry their significant other or move in together without any strings attached.…

    • 1208 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the most dramatic trends of recent years has been the tremendous increase in male-female couples who choose to live together without marrying, a practice called cohabitation. According to the 2000 Census, there are eleven million unmarried people living with an unmarried partner in the United States today, and this number has grown 72% in the last decade alone. While many people like David Popenoe, a Professor of Sociology, on his essay Sociological Reasons Not to Live Together suggests that living together is not a good way to prepare for marriage or to avoid divorce. There is another point of view like an organization called The Alternatives to Marriage Project (AtMP) believes that unmarried relationships should deserve validation and support.…

    • 942 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Neil Clark Warren in his essay “The Cohabitation Epidemic” starts by using tennis stars Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf’s case to mention the “cohabitation” issue and then quoting the data from the U.S Census Bureau and researcher Larry Bumpass to show that the number of people involved in cohabitation has significantly increased in the U.S in the last few decades. After that, Warren concludes that we should be alarmed over the recent increase of cohabiting couples. Before arguing against cohabitation, Warren introduces what kinds of people are cohabiting and why they are cohabiting. Followed by that, the author first uses the opinions from the bible to argue against cohabitation and then applies four strategies by comparing cohabitation and marriage to support marriage over cohabitation to lend the claim that a “ trial marriage” is unnecessary. Last, Warren uses the result from several studies to supplementally support the idea that there is no need for a “ trial marriage” because cohabiting couples have already known whether they should marry or not before making their final decisions and then restating his conclusion that the recent increase of cohabiting couples should cycle downward ( with our alarm over this issue ). After reading Warren’s essay, I think his essay should be unbelievable not only because there are a lot of fallacies involved but also because what Warren wrote about the comparisons between cohabitation and marriage tend to be weak to argue against cohabitation. One type of fallacy Warren used in his essay is false dilemma. This fallacy says “ there are only two alternatives to consider when there are actually more than two” (Lewis 187). For example, the author asserts “ people who cohabit fall into two categories” and then explains that either such people want to benefit from living together or treat cohabitation as a form of trial…

    • 1328 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Over the past forty years marriage, divorce and cohabitation rates have fluctuated significantly. For example, the number of divorces has increased from 27,000 in 1961 to 153,000 by 2006, whilst the Telegraph newspaper reported that ‘one in six people are cohabiting as marriage rates decline’. Why is this? There are multiple reasons for these varying statistics.…

    • 887 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As stated in our text, various factors can bind married couples together, such as economic interdependencies, legal, social and moral constraints, relationship, and amongst other things. In the recent years some of these factors have diminished their strengths. The modern generation sees marriage in a different perspective altogether. Individuals today feel they are stable independently, they do not need to rely on their spouse for emotional or financial support. Many are career driven and soar to conquer their dreams over settling down with a family. Such untraditional views have increased divorce rates.…

    • 740 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cherlin explains that the majority of people who get married are in their late 20’s to early 30’s in the 21st century. Shockingly, divorce has ben successfully decreasing. People with higher education are less likely to get divorced according to todays statistics. Having an education seems to create a level of succession within a humans lifetime. Education also seemed to affect people who choose to live with a partner outside of marriage. Cherins research conducted that Cohabiters are more likely to have a lower education level than married people, this does not include people with same sex relationships, that unable to get married because of law restrictions. I myself believe that its extremely important to receive an education before getting married and committing yourself to someone else. Having an education helps you map our your life before you decide to make more important decisions such as marriage. It’s not surprising to see that people who cohabit have less of an…

    • 700 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Turner, R. “Rising Prevalence of Cohabitation In United States May have Partially Offset Decline in Marriage Rates.” Family Planning Perspectives 22.2 (1990): 90-91. CINAHL with Full Text. Web. 1 Oct. 2012…

    • 825 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In analyzing the recent growth of cohabitation he finds that its practice began as a short term method of reducing the possibility of divorce as cohabitation was viewed as a sort of "trial marriage". However, as time has progressed this trial period has been severely lengthened and has less frequently yielded marriages as its outcome. Through cited statistics he shows that while in the 1970's sixty percent of cohabitations resulted in a marriage within three years, that number has been drastically reduced to thirty three percent in the 1990's. Cherlin shows that cohabitation has become so prevalent in the United States that the laws of the country have had to be changed to adapt to this recently developed living situation.…

    • 1198 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Neil does bring in some premises that are relevant to that. Neil brings up some states showing that children born to cohabiting parents experience separation of their parents before the age of “16” at “75%” compared to those married at around “one third” . If it was demonstrated that a separation of parents lead to a negative impacts in a child’s life and behavior then the premise might stand. Unfortunately since so few cohabiting couples decide to have children that the net parent separation rate bellow 16% is probably higher for married couples. Neil states that women are more likely to face “physical and sexual abuse” when living in cohabitation compared to a marriage. Neil fails to bring any stats or proof to that claim or anything thing showing that cohabitation is the cause and not just in correlation. An argument is made that relationships will not be as good as married relationships because the partners will not be “genuine and authentic” due to the thinking that “their partner may bolt at the first sign of trouble.” One could rebut that be not having this security would make both partners put more effort into maintaining the relationship due to the fact that they know their partner can leave much more easily. I find it hard to believe that married people are “emotionally, physically, financially, and vocationally” better off because the apparent studies are not listed and we are not informed in what way those statistics were…

    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Linda J. Waite’s pro-marriage article “Marriage Matters,” she sheds statistical light on the outweighing positive, as well as the negative, aspects of marriage. From her view, there are four outcomes which are directly affected from marriage opposing including: health, wealth, intimacy with your spouse, and, of course, the children. These four topics are the areas most affected (positive or negatively) by living single, married, cohabitating, or rebuilt lifestyles.…

    • 707 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Examine Reasons for Change in the Patters of Marriage and Cohabitation in the last 40 years…

    • 918 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Marriages Decline

    • 902 Words
    • 4 Pages

    “Marriage has declined as the central institution under which households are organized and children are raised,” Smith said. “People marry later and divorce and cohabitate more. A growing proportion of children has been born outside of marriage.”…

    • 902 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Cohabitation Before Marriage

    • 2513 Words
    • 11 Pages

    Did you know that over half of all first marriages are now preceded by living together compared to virtually none 50 years ago? The number of unmarried couples living together increased tenfold from 1960 to 2000. The number of unmarried couples living together increased 72% between 1990 and 2000. By the year 2010, if the present trend continues, there will be 7 married couples for every cohabiting couple. (Cohabitation Facts, "Cohabitation - It's Training for Divorce”- Chuck Colson (1995). Here are some statistics on cohabitating couples. These numbers show that as times go on more and more people will be living together before marriage. What is your opinion on cohabitation before marriage? Is this something that you see yourself doing in the future?…

    • 2513 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays