Marriage Myth Buster – Cohab Not a Precursor To Divorce — Dave’s Diary

As a father of three daughters I continue to be interested in trends that affect marriage and divorce.  Now an old “truism” based on research that showed a link between a couple living together before marriage and divorce is being revisited and re-examined in light of new studies. (At least researchers are making money!)

Researchers from the University of North Carolina looked at data from the National Survey of Family Growth from several years, and found that there was no link between whether people had cohabited before marriage and their rate of divorce. Ok that’s a big change…so what happened.  Was it a scare tactic before, a more accurate report now…or what?

Researchers say they found the turning point in age for picking a life partner seems to be about 23. However knowing is one thing, acting on that knowledge is another.  The average age for Americans getting married has reached a historic high -- 27 for women and 29 for men -- a jump from the 1990 average marrying age of 23 for women and 26 for men.

Researchers say, Knowing more about how relationships are formed and how they develop -- such as how long couples are romantically involved before moving in together -- may help us make better predictions about the chances that a relationship will dissolve, whether before the couple marries or after they do so. (Fox)

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