Dr. Avnish Jolly, 8th November, 2008 :According to recent study female who live together with many partners consecutively rarely think of marriage, compared to those who stick to a single partner.
Daniel T. Lichter, Cornell University and Zhen Chao, Ohio State University has suggested that if serial cohabiters marry, divorce rates are very high. Such women are twice as likely to get divorced, the study stressed.
Serial cohabiters were less likely than women who cohabited only once to marry. Moreover, serial cohabiters were two times more likely to get divorced than those who cohabited only with their eventual husbands. The findings of the study also indicate that only a 15 to 20 percent of cohabiting women were involved in multiple cohabitations. In addition, serial cohabitations mainly came from economically disadvantaged groups, especially those with low income and education.
Lichter said that understanding the myriad motivations of cohabiters may be more important than ever, especially if cyclical serial cohabiting couples with children have increased among recent cohorts as a percentage of all cohabitations.
Cohabitation is defined as a relationship in which a man and a woman live together and regularly engage in sexual intercourse without being married. According to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, cohabitation was once rare, but is now the norm, with roughly 10 percent of couples living together without marriage. Over the last twenty years, the number of marriages has fallen considerably, while there has been a growth in the number of couples living together without marrying.
Some regard cohabitation as a ‘trial marriage’, while others reject the institution of marriage and never plan to marry. Those who advocate cohabitation say it would be a wise idea for a couple to live together before getting married, as it allows them a trial period to confirm their compatibility and commitment and so avoid an unhappy marriage.
This study is published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, Lichter and Chao used data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, and tracked the experiences of women who had cohabited with more than one partner.