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Jacob Baxter

Mrs. Cramer

Comp Pd. 8

30 Nov. 2018

Cohabitation: Creating Cohesion for Couples

There have been a lot of matters destroying marriages, but cohabitation certainly isn't one

of them, Cohabitation is a way for couples’ marriages to be helped before or after marriage and

give benefits to support the couple when they are married. The definition of cohabitation is the

state of living together and having a sexual relationship without being married. Cohabitation has

been falsely blamed for divorces in a lot of marriages and is never thought to be a good thing.

Having a relationship before marriage is not a bad matter. Most people who think that

cohabitation was the cause of their divorce is because they had some kind of bad relationship and

they will not admit that they weren’t right for each other. The relationships of people are not

always the fault of cohabitation. Although sometimes cohabitation can play a part in marriage.

It's usually only the “gas of the fire” not the “spark”.

First, cohabitation helps marriages by being an alternative or even something called a

backup, which means that cohabitation can be used with that same person after the divorce.

Cohabitation is only a “trial marriage,” it tests the relationship of the couples (Hughes). Clearly

this statement shows that couples can use cohabitation as a little helper in their marriage

situation. WRONG, it states that cohabitation should be used to test a relationship before

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Understatement – deliberately expresses an idea as less important than it is.

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marriage so that the couple knows whether they are “compatible” or not. If they are “compatible”

they can marry, and it gives them some closure on their relationship. Also, with the closure it

gives the couple the freedom and choice on whether to marry or not due to cohabitation.

Sometimes after divorce, those couples will instead switch to cohabitation (McKay). This is very

helpful to the couple, maybe they have a kid or still want to share benefits in the long-term

marriage. Although this is also good for the couple, cohabitation gives them a chance to change

their minds about their divorce and go back to marriage. Also, switching to cohabitation gives

the couple the lives they might want or even set a course for them so that they don’t have to

completely split up. This could save the marriage from keeping them together to giving them a

second chance. Choosing cohabitation as a “virtual marriage”. This source shows that using

cohabitation gives the couple a chance at a practice marriage. This shows them how it's going to

be when they get married and if they should get married or know they aren't ready for the

responsibilities. Also, a “virtual marriage”, can be for couples to have a life where the marriage

isn't real until they want it to be. This means that they can be together doing things that a

marriage would be like. They won't have to be stuck in a marriage and possibly lose their lives.

So, cohabitation can most definitely help a marriage and give a couple the freedom the deserve.

Second, cohabitation can give benefits to support a couple when they get married.

Cohabitation is viewed to obtain advantages in a relationship with or without marriage (Martin).

As said in the definition of cohabitation, this relationship is kind of like a friend with benefits but

with the couple living together, and if the couple gains more feeling for each other, it will benefit

them with marriage. Instead of being together, they can go through cohabitation with another

person which is practically repeating the process and marrying that person instead. Although this

loses the relationship with the person before, cohabitation gives them a chance to start new lives

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with other people. There are more benefits given to singe women with children (Williams). This

example shows that single women with children can get bigger benefits from the man, and the

man of the relationship can have a family he can support and love and if everything goes right,

they get married. Also, single women get the support they deserve rather than dealing with the

relationship or marriage they were in before. The children with the single women can the father

they never had. This gives them a chance to have a normal life as a family instead of living alone

with no fatherly figure. In conclusion, there are a lot of benefits to a couples lives when they live

in cohabitation, their marriage could be even better if things are going so well.

Cohabitation is a horrible gateway to marriage and could potentially increase the chance

of divorce. This is indeed not true, there are facts that marriage does not increase the chance of

divorce and it does help couple get to marriage whether it be a gateway to it or to help the couple

fix their own relationship. There is a study made by researches showing 2003 women and 1483

men, aged 15 to 44, 60% of them were cohabitation, and 20% of them were divorced (Hughes).

This study shows that cohabitation could be a cause for divorce in marriages, but within that

20% were not just divorces caused by cohabitation. The 20% could be made of other regular

couples that decided to just break up due to some other problem like cheating or lying. Also,

with the study it shows that 60% of them were in cohabitation. These results conclude that

cohabitation is very common in many relationships which means people know that it helps their

gateway to marriage. It also concludes that the other 20% of this study is most likely successful

marriages that were in cohabitation before. Cohabitation could also not affect marriage, its

mostly affected by the wellbeing of the couple (Zimmermann). The wellbeing of the couple is

one of the most crucial parts of a relationship and this could be the main decision on whether

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they should be together or not. Cohabitation isn't affecting the marriage, couples' relationships2

with each other is due to them either not enjoying their lives or just not feeling the “fire”

anymore. So, cohabitation is not always the cause of divorce in marriage, it mostly helps and

shows the couple whether they are compatible for marriage or not.

Cohabitation hurts marriage; it can take a lot of money away from the couple and ruin

their marriage. Cohabitation is viewed to obtain advantages in a relationship with or without

marriage (Martin). This shows that cohabitation can help marriage by giving it benefits like

marrying someone with a good amount of profit made from your job or cohabitation. It also

shows that advantages are obtained, these advantages do not only consist of profit but also from

social life to your personal life. For example, one day a couple decides to get married after being

in cohabitation, they’ve both made a lot of money and benefited greatly living good lives just

because they were cohabitating with each other before marriage. Whether it be physical contact

with another person or being able to talk to someone, cohabitation helps give two people the

chance to create marriage as well. So, cohabitation gives benefits to the couple so that they can

get married and not have to be worried financially.

Cohabitation helps marriage due to providing a gateway and supporting marriage. Think

of Romeo and Juliet from the gnome movie, they both loves each other so much they were

practically in cohabitation until the end of the movie. So, cohabitation provides that gateway and

allows any couple to move on to a better marriage knowing whether they are compatible or not.

Also, marriages are being supported by cohabitation either financially or by helping.

Cohabitation provide3s advantages and benefits to a marriage as well. In conclusion, cohabitation

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Allusion – Reference to a famous person, group, historical event, etc.
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Anecdote – brief story or tale told to make a point.

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does not completely hurt marriage, it gives the couple the chance to make sure their lives will be

planned and how they want it to be.

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Jacob Baxter

Mrs. Cramer

English Comp 1 Pd. 8

21 Sept. 2018

Works Cited

Hughes, Robert. “Does Cohabitation Cause Divorce or a Better Marriage?” Huffington Post.

2012. Web. 20 Sept. 2018

Martin, Paige D., et al. “Adolescent Premarital Sexual Activity, Cohabitation, and Attitudes

Toward Marriage.” Adolescence, 36.143 (2001): 601. Student Resources in Context.

Web. 20 Sept. 2018

McKay, Kate and Brett. “Should you Live Together Before Marriage.” The Art of Manliness.

2017. Web. 20 Sept. 2018.

Williams, Kristi, et al. “For better or for worse? The consequences of marriage and cohabitation

for single mothers.” Social Forces. 86.4 (2008): 1481. Student Resources in Context. 20

Sept. 2018.

Zimmermann, Anke C., and Richard A. Easterlin. “Happily, ever after? Cohabitation, marriage,

divorce, and happiness in Germany.” Population and Development Review. 32.3 (2006):

511. Student Resources in Context. 20 Sept. 2018.

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