Title: Does Cohabitation Lead to More Divorces? | Psychology Today
Headings: Does Cohabitation Lead to More Divorces?
Aaron Ben-Zeév Ph.D.
Does Cohabitation Lead to More Divorces?
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Content: Accordingly, once various personal characteristics are controlled for, the risks of marital dissolution for those who cohabit prior to marriage are significantly lower than for those who marry directly ( here ). The dispute regarding the overall value of premarital cohabitation concerns the issue of whether the negative correlation between cohabitation and divorce (and marital quality in general) refers to process factors or selection factors. Process factors refer to the experience of cohabitation while selection factors refer to the characteristics of individuals who happen to be in cohabitation. I believe that the nature of the correlation between cohabitation and marital quality depends on both types of factors, and the interaction between these types of factors is complex and dynamic. THE BASICS
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All the positive and negative effects mentioned here—that is, the positive learning effects of trial marriage and the negative inertia effects—are indeed present in the transition from cohabitation to marriage. However, these effects (and others) have different relative weights in different cases, and those finally determine the overall impact upon marital quality. People who live together learn more about each other; however, such living increases constraints, regardless of the intensity of love and the quality of the relationship. As a result of these effects people who cohabit will marry even if they might not do so if they had not cohabited. However, in the case of the learning effect they will do so for the right reasons—that is, reasons that will enhance the quality of their relationship;