Originally posted by thackl
Statistics show significantly higher divorce rates for couples who live together first. Go figure.........
I'm sure someone ou there has a good explaination for this.
YIKES! And you're going to be a doctor? These "statistics" you mention are from a series of "studies" done by a small, private organization called the National Marriage Project. The fundamentally flawed studies made some very brash assertions about the misery caused by cohabitation (increased rates of divorce in eventual marriages, increased domestic violence, decreased health and happiness) and therefore recieved lots of press coverage, which caused a tidal wave of people who believe everything they read parrotting these urban myths, passing them on by word of mouth as fact.
To quote an excellent critique of the NMP study:
"The truth is, although it is widely accepted that marriage rates are closely tied to economics, most of the studies cited in the report do not control for socioeconomic status. On average, married couples have higher incomes than unmarried couples -- most couples only get married when they can afford to do so. So studies that purport to compare the happiness, domestic violence, or health differences between married and unmarried people are actually seeing effects of wealth. Wealthier people have better health care, safer neighborhoods, better access to education, and more choices in their lives. Living together without marriage isn't really their problem -- poverty is.
The cohabitation-divorce link is equally dubious. Multiple studies have shown that people who choose to cohabit are, on average, significantly less religious and more likely to believe divorce is an acceptable choice in a marriage gone bad. People who marry without living together first, on the other hand, tend to be more religious and more likely to be strongly opposed to divorce. It's no surprise that these two different groups of people act differently; it would hardly be newsworthy to say that people who are against divorce are less likely to divorce. "
I've never posted here before... I actually was just curious to see what my boyfriend is always reading, but I can't help stomping out the flames of ignorance wherever they pop up. The notion that one could "ruin" or "doom" an otherwise great relationship simply by signing a lease (and that one small study by a biased organization "proves" it) is too ridiculous to bear.
