the negative effects of cohabitation
Having a happy family has always been a great desire to everyone of all times. Beside choosing marriage as a common way to obtain happiness in life, most of young people nowadays opt for cohabitation. It is defined as “unmarried couples living together in a sexual relationship without being legally married” (Darniana Kendall ,1997,p.259). In spite of few positive effects, there are many negative ones which should be taken into proper consideration in terms of breaking marriage culture and spoiling children’s development.
The first influence is damaged marriage culture. Traditionally, marriage seemed to be the best choice for those who looked for a long-term commitment. When couples get married, they have public commitment, pledge for the future, official pronouncement of love and responsibility. In the case of cohabitation, people do not have to legalize their relationship. They meet, fall in love and live together in a quick progress to be wife and husband without commitment. Obviously, they lose the real value of marriage. What is more, the risk of separation and divorce rate is much higher. “Cohabiting partners tend to have a weaker sense of couple identity, less willingness to sacrifice for the other, and a lower desire to see the relationship go long term” (Popenoe). He also shows that even when children are given as pledge for live-in couple, breakup rate still happens.
Another impact is the bad effect on children’s development. In comparison to the children in intact-families, those in non-intact families may endure many problems in areas of emotion and psychology. According to Popenoe, “children in a broken family is more likely than average to be unhappy [and] to involve violence, abuse, debt, drug/alcohol problems as long as high levels of anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, and mental illness”. Furthermore, the broken families have negative contribution to the children’s poor...