Cohabitation Religion & Theology Essay Research Paper (Essay Sample)

Pros and Cons of Cohabiting Before Marriage
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Pros and Cons of Cohabiting Before Marriage
In the recent past, the world has experienced a steady decline in marriages as most people prefer to cohabit. While marriage provides social security, couples prefer live together for some time before tying knots to test the strength of their union. There are many reasons why couples decide to cohabit before finally marrying, although the arrangement comes with its dangers. Some people argue that with the instabilities in modern-day marriages, it is better to live together and raise a family “informally.” Although cohabiting before marriage helps couples to understand one another before exchanging vows, it weakens the levels of commitment and reduces financial and health benefits.
Firstly, living together before marriage weakens the levels of commitment as it fails to instigate seriousness. In their focus group studies in nine European countries, Perelli-Harris et al. (2014) found that most people who cohabit fear the dangers of marriages, which include lack of freedom. With such kind of reasoning, unmarried couples are not committed towards fulfilling the conventions of family, which include raising children and boosting one another economically. Lack of seriousness lead to vague and mistrusted lives as a couple becomes doubtful of whether their union will succeed or not. Although people who cohabit think that they have freedom to do what they want, they waste most of their time chasing unclear ambitions.