So says Cornell University. Their study
shows that co-habitating couples are in an intense form of dating that
is not necessarily a stepping stone for marriage.
Research
as part of a Cornell University study revealed that the average time
couples spend “living together” is less than two years and that only 4
percent of cohabiting couples stay together for more than ten years.
Half of all cohabiting “unions” end within a year, and 90 percent
within five years. As ever, it is the children who suffer from this laissez-faire approach
to relationships. Within five years of the birth of a child, 52 percent
of cohabitants split up. This compares to 25 percent of those
cohabiting couples who marry after the birth of the child, and only 8
percent of those couples who were already married when the child was
born. Thus the experts have finally come to the earth-shattering (and earth-shatteringly obvious) conclusion that marriage is good for the stability of relationships and crucial to the well-being of children. Read More.
Of course these are things that many of us already new, but now Cornell can tell us from an academic perspective.