COHABITATION

IS THERE A CAUSE FOR CONCERN?

Presented by:
Ryan Sturos Dorothy Manley Ashley Pitts Paula Garrison

What is Cohabitation?
The term COHABITATION refers to unmarried people who live together and who have a continuing emotional and sexual relationship
Source: Matlin, M. W. (2008)

The Census Bureau, describes an "unmarried partner" as a "person age 15 years and over, who is not related to the householder, who shares living quarters, and who has a close personal relationship with the householder.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau 2008

Other words for Cohabitation

Unmarried-couple

household Common-law relationship Common-law Union (most often used in Canada)

(These terms seem more like a business arrangement than a romantic relationship!)
Source:Matlin, M. W. (2008)

Most people use Living Together

A look inside of Cohabitation

Living together isnt always great but heres a quick look inside of one womans view!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCe_N pnv_iE&feature=player_embedded
Source: www.youtube.com

Declining Marriage Rates

Source U.S.Census Bureau, 2008

Cohabitation
and Economics

Society/low
Social

income and cohabitation

culture assistance

Government Health

issues

Cohabitation
Marriage

and Economics, cont.

rates have declined and cohabitations have increased due to the economy Tax Penalty

Income Views Laws

on marriage have changed

and regulations surrounding divorce

Source: Skolnick, (2011) ,Light (2008) Ferry (2004)

Cohabitation

and Education Levels

As illustrated in the following graph the less education the person(s) has the more likely they are to cohabitate. Between the years of 1987 and 1988 close to 45% of people with less than a high school education were cohabitating. By 1995 the number of cohabitating couples with less than a HS education doubled with the percentage near 60%. Couples with a high school degree and higher were less likely to cohabitate.
Source:Kreider, (2009)

Cohabitation
and Education Levels, cont.

As illustrated in the following graph the higher level of education a women attained the more likely they were to be married. In the year 2005 women with less than a HS education only around 32% of them were married by 2009 that number decreased by a small margin to around 26-28%.

Among women who attained a graduate or professional degree over 65% of them were married between the years of 2005 and 2009.
Women with a high school degree and beyond HS were more likely to be married and less likely to cohabitate.
Source:Bumpass, (1998)

Cohabitations implications on children with same sex parents

between 1 and 9 million children in the United States have at least 1 parent who is lesbian or gay. Most state laws do not allow for adoption or guardianship by an unmarried partner unless the parental rights of the first parent are terminated. A growing body of scientific literature demonstrates that children who grow up with 1 or 2 gay and/or lesbian parents fare as well in emotional, cognitive, social, and sexual functioning as do children whose parents are heterosexual Children born to and raised by lesbian couples also seem to develop normally in every way.

Cohabitations implications on children with same sex parents

Childrens

optimal development seems to be influenced more by the nature of the relationships and interactions within the family unit than by the particular structural form it takes

Source: Perrin (2002)

Why we presented the statistics we did for this report:

Education:

65% of couples w/o a high school diploma get divorced 50% of couples with a HS diploma + some college get divorced 36% of couples w/ a bachelors degree or higher get divorced Source: (Cherlin, 2011)

Economics:

42% of children born into the bottom fifth of income strata stay there 40% of children born into the top fifth of income stratum will stay there Source: (Faustenberg, 2011)

Same Sex Cohabiting Couples:

They seem to buck the trend of heterosexual cohabiting couples

Family Implications
Lead

by example frankly with your children about sex

Speak Stress

the importance of higher education

Federal Implications
Continue

programs that stress healthy marriages (2006 Healthy Marriage Initiative) Increase comprehensive sex education & family planning initiatives Facilitate the ability for youth to receive a higher education

QUESTIONS

References

Matlin, M. W. (2008). The Psychlogy of Women (6thth ed., p. 257). Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCe_Npnv_iE&feature=player_embedde d U.S. Census Bureau, American Factfinder. (2008). S1201. Percent of Persons Who Have Never Married by Sex and Age, 1970, 2000, and 2008. [Table] (American Community Survey). Retrieved September 16, 2011 from http://www.factfinder.census.gov/ Cherlin, A. (2011). American marriage in the early twenty-first century. In Family in Transition (16th ed., pp. 190-210). New York: Allyn & Bacon Light, A., & Omori, Y. Economic Incentives and Family Formation (August, 2008). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1399087

References cont.

Ferry, N. M. (2004). Changing American Family. In Connecting Families (pp. 87-90). University Park, PA: Penn State Cooperative Extension. Kreider, Rose M., and Rene Ellis. "Number, Timing, and Duration of Marriages and Divorces: 2009." Current Population Reports (2011): 70-125. Print Bumpass, Larry L. "The Changing Significance of Marriage in the United States." The Changing Family in Comparative Perspective: Asia and the United States (1998): 63-70. Print. Perrin, E. C., & Aspects of Child and Fam, C. (2002). Coparent or SecondParent Adoption by Same-Sex Parents. Pediatrics, Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, 109(341), 340-346. Retrieved September 23, 2011, from pediatrics.aappublications.org Cherlin, A. (2011). American marriage in the early twenty-first century. In Family in Transition (16th ed., pp. 190-210). New York: Allyn & Bacon.

References cont.

Faustenberg, F. (2011). Diverging development: the not-so-invisible hand of social class in the United States. In Family in Transition (16th ed., pp. 314-331). New York: Allyn & Bacon.