So-called "New" Cohabitation Report

One of the teasers on World News Tonight last night was "Cracking the code on marriage! How to keep it strong." The web site link to the WNT segment says "The Secret to a Long and Happy Marriage?"

When the segment faded to the commercial break, we looked at one another and thought perhaps we missed something. We didn't hear the "secret" other than to choose the right spouse and show respect for one another. The segment was more about cohabitation than about secret formulas for successful marriages.

The actual report by the CDC confused us a bit. While the report "Marriage and Cohabitation in the United States" was recently issued by the CDC, it was based on data from the "Cycle 6 (2002) of the National Survey of Family Growth." This is a "new" study? Isn't 2002 around 8 years ago?

We suggest reading all the following articles. The different perspectives and takeaways on the same report is fascinating.

• MSNBC: "Living Together Does Lead to Marriage: 2 in 3 who cohabit tie the knot within 5 years, CDC says."

  "Most importantly though, the data show that those who live together have just as good a chance of staying married as those who do not live together first."

• Reuters: "Marriages Last Longer Than Living Together?"

  "About 75 percent of marriages between men and women 26 years old or older last at least 10 years, compared with only about half of teen marriages."

• USA Today: "Report: Cohabiting Has Little Effect On Marriage Success."

  "Sociologist Pamela Smock of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor considers the data definitive. "On the basis of these numbers, there is not a negative effect of cohabitation on marriages, plain and simple," she says. Paul Amato, a sociologist at Pennsylvania State University, says the new data suggest that "maybe the effect of premarital cohabitation is becoming less of a problem than it was in the past. If it becomes normative now, maybe it's not such a big deal."

• The New York Times: "Study Finds Cohabiting Doesn't Make a Union Last."

  "Couples who live together before they get married are less likely to stay married, a new study has found. But their chances improve if they were already engaged when they began living together ... Couples who marry after age 26 or have a baby eight months or more after marrying are also more likely to stay married for more than a decade."

Here are a few findings from earlier studies about living together.

• The risk for divorce among cohabiting couples married at least seven years is the same as couples who didn't live together before marriage.
• Cohabiting couples in France and Germany have a slightly lower risk of divorce.
• If cohabitation is limited to couples who are engaged, there is no elevated risk of divorce.
• Cohabiting couples in the U.S. who take premarital education courses or counseling are not at a higher risk for divorce.

If you want a long and happy life together, choose the right spouse, show respect for one another, and get married for the right reasons. Love, communication, humor, and honesty are other qualities that help keep couples together.

What is your formula for a successful marriage?

So-called "New" Cohabitation Report originally appeared on About.com Marriage on Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 at 02:13:45.

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