In this country today, about fifty percent of marriages end in divorce. There are those who question if it would be wiser if couples lived together to see if they were compatible and then married. In the past, if a couple lived together before marrying, it was a sign that if the couple did marry, there was a good chance their marriage would fail. However, according to a new study, this no longer seems to be true.
In the United States today, about sixty percent of couples live together before marriage. The co-director of the National Center for Family and Marriage Research at Bowling Green University, Wendy Manning, says that the trend has become so common, that “it’s not surprising it no longer negatively affects marriage stability.”
The study conducted by the Center found that those couples who were engaged and living together before marriage were just as likely to have marriages that lasted fifteen years as those couples who hadn’t lived together. Those couples who lived together without being engaged, however, were less likely to make the 10-15 year mark in their marriages. Researchers believe the reasons for these statistics could be more lax attitudes about commitment, lower education levels or family histories that made these couples not engaged more pessimistic about marriage.
According to the Centers for Disease and Prevention (CDC), both women and men with bachelor degrees usually marry at a later age, but once they marry, are more likely to stay married for twenty or more years. The Center also found that Asian women had the best marriage rate, with nearly 70 percent still in their first marriage, compared to 54 percent of white women, 53 percent of Hispanic women, and 37 percent of black women. Among men, 62 percent of Hispanic men were still in their first marriage at twenty years, compared to 54 percent of white males and 53 percent of black males.
Whether or not a couple does live together before marriage or not, the chances are high their marriage will end in divorce. When a couple does divorce, there are many issues, such as child custody and support or property division, that need to be addressed. An experienced Florida divorce lawyer will defend your rights and pursue the best possible outcome on behalf of your divorce case.