Editing Cohabitation (section)

==Reasons for cohabitation in the United States==
{{Main|Cohabitation in the United States}}

Cohabitation in the United States is often a part of the dating process.<ref name="Kramer 2004 28">{{cite journal |last=Kramer |first=Elise |title=Cohabitation: Just a Phase? |journal=Psychology Today |date=September–October 2004 |volume=37 |page=28}}</ref> In fact, "cohabitation is increasingly becoming the first coresidential union formed among young adults".<ref name="autogenerated2002">{{cite journal |vauthors=Goodwin PY, Mosher WD, Chandra A |year=2010 |title=Marriage and cohabitation in the United States: A statistical portrait based on Cycle 6 (2002) of the National Survey of Family Growth (National Center for Health Statistics) |journal=Vital Health Statistics |volume=23 |pages=1–55}}</ref>
By 1996, more than two-thirds of married couples in the US said that they lived together before getting married.<ref name="Sharon Jayson">{{cite news|author=Sharon Jayson |title=Cohabitation is Replacing Dating|work=USA Today
|url=https://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/2005-07-17-cohabitation_x.htm
|date=18 July 2005}}</ref> "In 1994, there were 3.7 million cohabiting couples in the United States."<ref name="Journal">{{cite journal |last1=Brown |first1=S.L. |last2=Booth |first2=A. |year=1996 |title=Cohabitation versus marriage: A comparison of relationship quality |journal=Journal of Marriage and the Family |volume=58 |issue=3 |pages=668–678 |doi=10.2307/353727 |jstor=353727}}</ref> This is a major increase from a few decades earlier. According to Dr. Galena Rhoades, "Before 1970, living together outside marriage was uncommon, but by the late 1990s at least 50% to 60% of couples lived together premaritally."<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Rhoades GK, Stanley SM, Markman HJ |year=2012 |title=A longitudinal investigation of commitment dynamics in cohabiting relationships |journal=Journal of Family Issues |volume=33 |issue=3| pages=369–390 |doi=10.1177/0192513x11420940| pmc=3377181 |pmid=22736881}}</ref>

People may live together for a number of reasons. Cohabitants could live together to save money, or because of the convenience of living with another, or a need to find housing.<ref name="Kramer 2004 28"/>
Lower income individuals facing financial uncertainty may delay or avoid marriage, not only because of the cost of a wedding<ref name="Smock2004">{{cite journal
|url=http://www.psc.isr.umich.edu/pubs/pdf/rr04-564.pdf
|author1=Pamela J. Smock|author1-link=Pamela Smock |author2=Wendy D. Manning |author3=Meredith Porter
|title="Everything's There Except Money": How Money Shapes Decisions to Marry Among Cohabitors
|journal=Journal of Marriage and Family
|year=2005
|volume=67
|issue=3
|pages=680–696
|doi=10.1111/j.1741-3737.2005.00162.x
|access-date=29 November 2012
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130405094608/http://www.psc.isr.umich.edu/pubs/pdf/rr04-564.pdf
|archive-date=5 April 2013
|url-status=dead
}}</ref> but also because of fear of financial hardship if a marriage were to end in divorce.<ref name="pmid22822285">{{cite journal |vauthors=Miller AJ, Sassler S, Kusi-Appouh D |title=The Specter of Divorce: Views From Working- and Middle-Class Cohabitors |journal=Fam Relat |year=2011 |volume=60 |issue=5 |pages=602–616 |pmid=22822285 |doi=10.1111/j.1741-3729.2011.00671.x |pmc=3399247}}</ref>

When responding to a survey of the reasons for cohabitation, most couples listed reasons such as spending more time together, convenience-based reasons, and testing their relationships, while few gave the reason that they do not believe in marriage.<ref name=pmc2743430>{{cite journal |vauthors=Rhoades GK, Stanley SM, Markman HJ |year=2009a |title=Couples' reasons for cohabitation: Association with individual well-being and relationship quality |journal=Journal of Family Issues |volume=30| issue=2| pages=233–258| pmc=2743430| pmid=19756225| doi=10.1177/0192513x08324388}}</ref> The extremely high costs of housing and tight budgets of the economy are also factors that can lead a couple to cohabitation.<ref name="Sharon Jayson"/>

Sixty percent of all marriages are preceded by a period of cohabitation.<ref name="Cohabitation">{{cite web |title=Cohabitation |website=For Your Marriage |url=http://foryourmarriage.org/catholic-marriage/church-teachings/cohabitation/ |access-date=16 March 2012}}</ref> Researchers suggest that couples live together as a way of trying out marriage to test compatibility with their partners, while still having the option of ending the relationship without legal implications.<ref>{{cite report |author1=Wendy D. Manning |author2=P. J. Smock |author2-link=Pamela Smock|date=2009 |publisher=[[National Council on Family Relations]] |id=NCFR Report 54 |title=Divorce-proofing marriage: Young adults' views on the connection between cohabitation and marital longevity}}</ref> In 1996, "More than three-quarters of all cohabitors report[ed] plans to marry their partners, which implies that most of them viewed cohabitation as a prelude to marriage."<ref name="Journal"/> Cohabitation shares many qualities with marriage. Often couples who are cohabiting share a residence, personal resources, exclude intimate relations with others, and more than 10% of cohabiting couples have children.<ref name="Journal"/> "Many young adults believe cohabitation is a good way to test their relationships prior to marriage."<ref name=pmc2743430/> Couples who have plans to marry before moving in together or who are engaged before cohabiting typically marry within two years of living together.<ref name="Murrow 2010 397–412">{{cite journal |last=Murrow |first=Carrie |author2=Lin Shi|s2cid=144241396|title=The Influence of Cohabitation Purposes on Relationship Quality: An Examination in Dimensions |journal=The American Journal of Family Therapy |year=2010|volume=38|issue=5|pages=397–412 |doi=10.1080/01926187.2010.513916}}</ref> The state of cohabitation of a couple often ends either in marriage or in break-up; according to a 1996 study about 10% of cohabiting unions remained in this state more than five years.<ref name="Journal"/> According to a survey done by The National Center for Health Statistics, "over half of marriages from 1990-1994 among women began as cohabitation."<ref name="autogenerated2002"/>

Cohabitation can be an alternative to marriage in situations where marriage is not possible for legal or religious reasons (such as [[same-sex marriage|same-sex]], [[interracial marriage|interracial]] or [[interreligious marriage]]s).<ref name="Murrow 2010 397–412"/>

Cohabitation, sometimes called de facto marriage, is becoming a more common substitute for conventional marriage.{{cn|date=August 2022}} [[Common-law marriage in the United States]] can still be contracted in nine US states, and in two others under restriction.{{efn|"Eleven states recognize common-law marriages currently being established within their borders. They are Alabama, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas and Utah."<ref>{{cite book |title=Common-Law Marriage Handbook |date=June 2016 |publisher=U.S. Department of Labor |url=http://www.dol.gov/owcp/energy/regs/compliance/PolicyandProcedures/CommonLaw_Marriage.pdf |page=13}}</ref> However, in New Hampshire, common law [[Posthumous marriage|marriage is recognized only posthumously]], for purposes of probate only,<ref>{{cite web |title=Title XLIII: Domestic Relations — Chapter 457: Marriages, Proof of Marriage — Section 457:39 |website=gencourt.state.nh.us |url=http://gencourt.state.nh.us/rsa/html/XLIII/457/457-39.htm |access-date=2023-06-25 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071014190117/http://gencourt.state.nh.us/rsa/html/XLIII/457/457-39.htm |archive-date=14 October 2007}}</ref> and Utah recognizes common-law marriages only if they have been validated by a court or administrative order.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://le.utah.gov/~code/TITLE30/htm/30_01_000405.htm |access-date=16 December 2014 |title=Title 30 Chapter 1 Section 4.5 |publisher=Utah State Legislature |url-status=dead |archive-date=16 December 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141216175439/http://le.utah.gov/~code/TITLE30/htm/30_01_000405.htm}}</ref>}} This helps provide the surviving partner a legal basis for inheriting the decedent's belongings in the event of the death of their cohabiting partner. In modern cohabiting relationships, forty percent of households include children, giving an idea of how cohabitation could be considered a new normative type of family dynamic.<ref name="Cohabitation"/> In 2012, 41% of all births in the US were to unmarried women.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://datacenter.aecf.org/data/tables/7-births-to-unmarried-women#detailed/1/any/false/868/any/257,258 |title=Births to unmarried women (for the nation, 2012) |website=Kids Count Data Center |publisher=The Annie E. Casey Foundation |access-date=22 August 2015}}</ref> In three states ([[Mississippi]] – 55%, [[Louisiana]] – 53%, and [[New Mexico]] – 52%) births outside marriage were in the majority; the lowest percentage of births outside marriage was in Utah, at 19%.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://datacenter.aecf.org/data/tables/7-births-to-unmarried-women#detailed/2/2-52/false/868/any/257,258 |title=Births to unmarried women (by state, 2012) |website=Kids Count Data Center |publisher=The Annie E. Casey Foundation |access-date=22 August 2015}}</ref> During the period 2006–2010, 58% of births outside marriage were to cohabiting parents.<ref>{{cite web|author=Joan Raymond |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/more-unmarried-moms-are-living-partners-n179031|title=More Unmarried Moms Are Living With Partners |work=NBC News |date=13 August 2014 |access-date=22 August 2015}}</ref>