Study Shows Living Together Not A Relationship Test

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A USA Today article recently discussed the early results of a study that has many more years to go before it completes, where researchers found that (so far) the 18 to 34 year old respondents chose to live with the person they are dating not as a relationship test or as a trial for marriage, but rather that they wanted to spend more time together; more than half of the men and women chose the latter answer, whereas only 9% of men and 5% of women stated it was to "test the relationship before marriage".

Of the 1,294 participants in the study, the 32% that are currently cohabiting said:

  • 66% moved in together before making any marriage plans;
  • 23% wanted to get married but hadn't made it formal, and
  • 11% got engaged and moved in together.

Most of the respondents stated they'd 'slid into' moving into together, or talked about it vaguely or briefly but it just happened, whereas one third said they'd formally had a discussion about moving in together before taking the plunge.

Interestingly, related research published in the scholarly journal Family Process has found that although cohabitation is on the rise (13.6 million Americans are cohabiting but not married according to the 2008 census data), couples married less than ten years who cohabited beforehand were less satisfied in their marriages than those who had waited to live together.

References: Allen, E., Rhoades, G., Stanley, S., Markman, H., Williams, T., Melton, J., et al. (2008, June). Premarital Precursors of Marital Infidelity. Family Process, 47(2), 243-259\.

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