Feanne
Feanne
Jul 10, 2017 · 2 min read

To Catherine Mae Decena:

Anna Cosio cited the 2009 study to “clearly show that cohabitation is not the way to go for a successful marriage”, when in fact that study did not at all definitively state that. What the study states regarding discouraging cohabitation was this: “Therefore, some might say that the question about dissuading couples is really more about religion than practice based on social science. Others would say that, even when it comes to social science, blanket proscriptive advice is not indicated or, at best, is premature. Not even the three authors of this paper completely agree on what would be the best practice under differing circumstances.”

So, the 2009 study was inconclusive as to whether or not cohabitation is the way to go, contrary to what Anna Cosio claims.

The previous studies do show a consistent link between cohabitation and subsequent divorce. However, you are incorrect in assuming that this means cohabitation is the biggest factor in, or actually causes, subsequent divorce. Although the link (known as “the cohabitation effect”) has been documented, it cannot be conclusively said based on research that it is cohabitation itself which causes subsequent divorce, and not other factors.

If you’re trying to figure out whether or not cohabitation itself causes subsequent divorce, you have to rule out other factors. The 2014 study is significant because it shows that previous studies failed to rule out an important factor — the age of the couple when deciding to commit.

From the 2014 study:

“Standardizing by age at marriage in statistical comparisons of marriage dissolution among premarital cohabitors and direct marriers resulted in an artificially inflated “gap” in divorce rates relative to both models that standardized age using age at coresidence and models that did not take into account age at all. Hazard ratios for the effect of cohabitation on marriage dissolution when controlling for coresidence were 54% to 76% smaller than those found when controlling for age at marriage. The association between cohabitation and marriage dissolution was nonsignificant in models that controlled for age at coresidence and demographic characteristics, even in the cohort who married prior to 2000, for whom all prior research has found a significant positive association of cohabitation and divorce. These findings indicate that previous research on cohabitation and divorce that typically standardized age using age at marriage may have overstated the association between cohabitation and divorce if controlling for age at coresidence is the correct model specification… This research also suggests that young couples wishing to avoid divorce would be better served by delaying settling down and forming coresidential unions until their mid-20s when they are older and more established in their lives, goals, and careers, whether married or not at the time of coresidence, rather than avoiding premarital cohabitation altogether.”

And as for your problems accessing the 2014 study — it might be a problem with your ISP. Try accessing the link through a proxy, or see if you can access this archived version of the webpage:

    feanne.com / IG @feanne

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