Fr. Bob’s Corner

This September the Vanier Institute in Ottawa released a study by a York University scientist (Marie Ambert) camparing & analyzing ‘marriage’ to “cohabitation’ (better known as ‘living together). The study reveals that marriage is better for spouses, children, and society. Yet, the study reports that ‘living together’ is becoming the option of choice for many couples. Deborah Gyapong from Candian Catholic News (CCN) in a recent article summarized some of the studies findings:

OTTAWA (CCN) - A study by a York University social scientist comparing marriage and cohabitation reveal that marriage provides far better outcomes for women and children.
“Commitment and stability are at the core of children’s needs; yet, in a great poroportion of cohabitations, these two requirements are absent,” says Anne-Marie Ambert in her report Cohabitation and Marriage: How they are related. Ambert says that children living in cohabitation arrangements are not much better off than those living with single parents, especially if their mother is living with a man who is not their biological father.
She says that children in these unions are more likely to suffer from neglect and physical abuse. For girls, the danger of sexual abuse rises.
While cohabiting can reduce a singe parent family’s poverty by up to 30 per cent, Ambert says the material benefit is offset by the ‘fragility’ of the relationship, an instance where cohabitations becomes a ‘revolving door’ of new partnerships.
“Children benefit unequivocally form their parent’s marriage,” she writes, noting they have the lowest poverty rates, lower infant mortality and better health.
“Children also benefit in terms of economic security, school achievement, affective an emotional stability, leisure activities, prosocial behavior and, later on as adults, in terms of employment,’ she writes.
Released in late September by the Vanier Institue of the Family, Ambert’s report gathers data from hundreds of research papers to examine the impact of cohabitation.
Ambert reports that cohabitation rates “have shot up” in the past ten years, while marriage rates have dropped.
“In Canada, the marriage rate peaked at 10.6 per 1000 population in 1941 to decline of 7.1 in 1990 and then to 5.0 in 2001,” she writes.
In 2001, 16 percent of Canadian couples were cohabitating, compared to 8.2 percent of American couples.
In Quebec, 30 per cent of couples are cohabiting, a rate as high as Sweden’s and higher than France.
When Quebec is excluded, 11.7 percent of Canadian couples are cohabiting, she reports.
Among adults aged 20-29, the number of people neither marrying or cohabiting has also increased.
“A longer perid of singlehood is also a result of the fact that sexual relationsihips outside of marriage are now more accessible and socially acceptable in western societies,” she says.
Ambert found that cohabitation before marriage increases the risk of divorce later on, everywhere except Quebec, where the divorce rate is higher than in the rest of Canada.
She attributes this higher risk to lower rates of sexual fidelity and higher rates of premarital violence. She also points out that previously cohabiting couples have higher rates of marital violence even if there was no violence prior to tying the knot.
Fifty percent of cohabitations dissolve within five years, she says, compared with the 30 per cent divorce rate for marriages after five years.
“Couples who cohabit are less religious than those who marry without prior cohabitation,” she writes. “Several studies indicate a correlation between religiosity and marital happiness as well as stability. Ambert warned that cohabitations are less stable than they were in the 1970’s, when 60 percent went on to marry.
Now only 35 per cent are likely to marry, and younger cohabitors “now begin living together rather quickly after the onset of dating,” she says.
“For them, cohabitation is replacing dating,” she said.
Ambert says that cohabitation is attractive for young people because it brings sexual availability, a form of savings though pooling of resources and, for some, an escape from their families.
It also doesn’s require the expense of a wedding, and leaves couples freer “to invent their relationships outside the mould of traditional expectations and gender roles,” she says.
Cohabiting males and females are more likely to be unfaithful than husbands or wives.
The rates for male and female cohabitors are 25 and 22 percent respectively, while for husbands and wives, the rates are 11 and 9 per cent.
Ambert points out that the more committed partner in a cohabitation - usually the woman - is at a disadvantage, as the uncommitted partner remains “in a permanent state of availability.”
“In other words, they are still ‘playing the field’ while benefiting from economic advantage, companionship and sexuality,” she said.
“It is actually possible that the less committed and potentially unstable cohabitations create inner tension, anxiety and stress for the adults and children concerned,” she writes. “These health hazards would in turn result in costs to the health care system, to employers, and to schools which have a high porportion of children living in cohabitational housefolds.”
Though cohabiting couples report more frequent sex, Ambert says the studies she looked at showed that married couples are “by far” happier, and have lower rates of emotional problems, are healthier and live longer.

Click: Vanier Institute for the full report.
This link will take you to a list of publications. Choose: ‘Cohabitation and Marriage: How Are They Related’. You can download as a ‘pdf’ file for free. There are many other relevant and interesting publications listed for your perusal. I would recommend that you explore their site, especially their summary ‘Facts on Families’ from the Canadian census of 2001.