Drawbacks of Cohabitation

Family is the smallest but also the most basic social structure in society. Nowadays, traditional family structure is under threat because the rising trend among youngsters is cohabitation. Almost every day we learn that a new book is published, or an article is written by people either comparing or contrasting the two institution or their advantages or disadvantages. Not only writers but also the law-makers have differing attitudes towards cohabitation and marriage. Although the number of people who choose cohabitation is increasing steadily, its disadvantages overweigh its advantages.

The first drawback of cohabitation is that it affects the couples’ individual life. While loyalty is one of the main components of marriage, in cohabitation there is usually no loyalty and this normally leads to some problems. The duration of relationship in cohabitation is not as long as in marriage. According to researches held by John Ermsich and Marco Francesconi, the rate of splitting up among the cohabiting couples is much higher than marriages (nd). In addition to loyalty problem, the high rate of violence in cohabitation seems to be another drawback of this kind of unity. Studies have been found out that the “premarital violence” rate is higher in couples who had cohabited before marriage than who had not cohabited (“Zenit”, 2005). Also, Natural Crime Victimization Survey states that 65 percent of violent crimes against women were committed by a boy friend or ex-husband, but only 9 percent committed by husbands (as cited in Wings, nd). Thus, this illustrates that cohabiting women face violence more than married women.

Another disadvantage of cohabitation is the instability in the couples’ economy. According to Linda Waite, cohabiting couples receive the assistance of family members less than married couples (as cited in Harms, 2000). In the case of starting to cohabit without the permission of family members, cohabiting couples receive either no support or very few amount of money and they have to maintain the economy only by themselves. Another finding from Linda Waite’s researches is that cohabiting men support their partners less than married men. This indicates that cohabiting women are not supported for housework (as cited in Harms, 2000). Also, Anne-Marie Ambert states that cohabiting men earn less than married men (as cited in “Zenit”, 2005). As cohabiting men earn less,