Reasons For Adopting Cohabitation Relationships

Cohabitation Relationships Institutional Affiliation Date Introduction Different studies have shown society preference to cohabitation rather than marriage relationships. This paper explains what cohabitation is and its impacts to different categories of people. Cohabitation is an upcoming trend and whose roots are growing deeper and more profound worldwide. The big question that comes to one’s mind when this term is mentioned is, what is the meaning of the term cohabitation, where or why is it practiced and what are the positive or negative impacts. In general, cohabitation is a situation whereby a couple decides to live together without getting married to each other; however, it does not necessarily implicate that when a couple lives together they are cohabiting CITATION Joh15 \l 1033 (Asland, 2015). A couple may reside at different places and still cohabit. That, therefore, means there are other important aspects that one should look into so as to determine if cohabitation really exists between chosen couples. Among the factors that one should consider in mind for a particular cohabitating couple is the type of emotional attachments that the couple has. Finding out whether love bonds their relationship. Do they surprise each other with presents and gifts? How much are they intimate with each other, do they share one bed, how much do they care for one another other, do they support each other in times of need, do they share meals together and more so how do they act when they are in public. After having thoroughly investigated if all the above aspects indeed really exist for a chosen couple, then that are a true assumption and the exact picture of what cohabitation really is in a real-life situation. Reasons for Adopting Cohabitation Relationships The shift in value orientation in the second half of the twentieth century towards an individualistic lifestyle, in which people understood that sex and marriage are no longer closely related, provides a perfect explanation for the many demographic changes such as the growing trend of cohabitation in the Western world (Trovato 2009). Due to this upcoming behavior, there has been a lot of research carried out to find out the cause or the factors that have aggravated the increment of such practices across the world. Most of the couples highlighted their reason for cohabiting as to the fact that they get to spend most of their time together and by doing so they find themselves suitable for each other. The time they spend together in their cohabitation relationship is necessary before the actual decision whether to get or not get married is reached. To them, cohabitation is a test to find out whether after getting married the relationship will still work or how much are they convenient for each other. Another reason is the insecurity perceived by the couple, so taking more time in cohabitation relationships gives them room to find out more about their other spouse, their characters, and behaviors in general. Such indications prove that most spouses suffer from insecurity thus opting to cohabitation relationships as a way of “test marriage” or finding refuge. North America reported high rates of cohabitation since the 1970s followed by Europe which was second in the list CITATION Joh15 \l 1033 (Asland, 2015). According to research conducted by Healey (2010), in which a questionnaire was used to collect data; the reasons for opting cohabitation were rated according to their significance. The need to spend more time with each other was a widespread reason given out by various cohabitating couples thus being ranked first in the list. The second reason in the list as a reason for cohabitation is that it made a couple realize how suitable they are for each other CITATION Jus101 \l 1033 (Healey, 2010). Practicing cohabitation before venturing into marriage was the last reason highlighted among these three significance reasons for cohabitating. Other external factors were also much highlighted by different couples cohabiting, economic status being among them. Financial problems made some of the couples to opt for cohabitation. Sharing of daily expenses such as rent, meals, and leisure activities are among the very many reasons brought out to light. In addition, couples choose to cohabit as the benefits of marriage cannot offset the negative effects of divorce, in other words, the price of a divorce is too high. The divorce process can be time consuming, devastating and costly especially the legal costs for paying a lawyer or an attorney that no one would want to go through. Cohabitation Trends across Different Groups Beginning with the young and the old, it was found out that the young individuals raised a lot of concern about marriage after being thoroughly quizzed on the matter. The fear of getting a divorce was cited as being a major reason to opt for cohabitation against marriage. Why get married now and later file for a divorce? Such were the questions being aired out by the young category. It has always been known that maintenance and the ability to sustain a successful marriage is a concern to a majority of young people in the society. For instance, taking a real life example for the 1990s high school seniors in different institutions, about forty percent of them gave a strong stand that after getting married they were not sure if they would still stick with the same person they married in their whole lifetime. When it comes to the adults, majorly cohabitation to them is a way of testing their relationship before deciding to get married. For other adults, it’s about being afraid of tying the knots for a whole life time thus opting cohabitation as another alternative. Initially, fear of divorce was not a great determinant for marriage until the economic concerns for either one being poor or rich arose. It has now been noted that many individuals find the importance of marriage as being simply not enough as compared to the financial pain that one undergoes, especially for these rich fellows in the society. The middle class people are the ones completely shunning away the divorce in their lives, especially due to their low salaries. Also, the people considered being more educated are the ones often getting married and sticking to them nowadays. A majority number of males are choosing cohabitation rather than being in a marriage relationship. This is because men in societies are being considered as the primary providers. Freeing themselves away from the financial pressures and other responsibilities has contributed to men’s choice for cohabitation. Impacts of Cohabitation To begin with, is cohabitation good or bad? That is a question that has proved to be a great menace to many people who are not yet involved in cohabitation relationships. Also, a lot of people begin by finding answers to such a question before joining it. Multiple researches suggest that the answer given to such a topic has not yet been 100% guaranteed to be either good or bad. However, it has been argued that practicing cohabitation before marriage has endangered so many people to a lot of suffering CITATION Kat98 \l 1033 (Bingham, 1998). Most couples who had initially foregone cohabitation before being officially married have been reported to be among the very many people suffering from divorce cases later in their lives CITATION Mar93 \l 1033 (Parry, 1993). How and why does this happen? The answer to such question is that cohabitation has similar aspects to those practiced in marriage. After a relationship is made official through marriage, commitment is one of the key things required for the marriage to work effectively. When things happen contrary and commitments to the marriage is not fostered, divorce as way to free one’s self is opted out. Cohabitation was also explained as being useful in determining how much dedicated can a couple be for one another as this kind of relationship requires a lot of commitments CITA...