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 isn’t always great but here’s a quick look inside of one woman’s view!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCe_Npnv_iE&feature=player_embedded

Source: www.youtube.com

Declining Marriage Rates

Source U.S.Census Bureau, 2008

Cohabitation and Economics

  Society/low income and cohabitation

Social culture

Government assistance

Health issues

Cohabitation and Economics, cont.

Marriage rates have declined and cohabitations have increased due to the economy

Income Tax Penalty

Views on marriage have changed

Laws and regulations surrounding divorceSource: 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

Children’s 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

Speak frankly with your children about sex

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_embedded

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 Second-Parent 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.