Couples who lived together before taking the matrimonial plunge are more likely to be divorced within five years of their wedding, a report said Thursday.
The Office of Population Censuses and Surveys said couples who lived together before marriage were 50 percent more likely to be divorced within five years, and 60 percent more likely to have divorced after eight years, than couples who had not cohabitated.The report said there had been dramatic changes in patterns of cohabitation, marriage, divorce, and remarriage in the last few decades, since a relaxing of social constrictions in the '60s.
The study found that both men and women were more likely to cohabitate before their second marriage than before their first.
The authors emphasized that no causal link had been established between premarital cohabitation and divorce. It found that couples who married with a civil ceremony were more likely to have lived together before marriage than those who married in church.
The report suggested couples who lived together were more likely to be unconventional in their beliefs and thus more likely to consider divorce.
It said age at marriage and length of marriage did not make any difference to the likelihood of divorce.
Couples who married between 1970 and 1975 after living together were 30 percent more likely to divorce after five years than couples who had not cohabited. This figure rose to 40 percent in cohabiting couples marrying between 1975 and 1979, and to 50 percent for marriages between 1980 and 1984.
"Couples who premaritally cohabited were about 40 percent more likely to have divorced within 15 years of marriage compared with those who had not premaritally cohabited," the report concluded.
The trend may be explained by the fact that couples who live together before tying the knot are less likely to think of marriage as a lifelong commitment, the report says.