One form of lifestyle that has become rather common is the cohabiting couple, an unmarried couple living together in an intimate sexual relationship. By 1994, there were 3.7 million such cohabiting couples in the United States, an increase of about 3 million couples since 1970, when the idea was still considered new and radical. As the practice of cohabitation has become more widespread in the United States, several researchers have attempted to identify the motivations and effects of this lifestyle. Authorities on the subject have concluded that the increasing prevalence of cohabitation is the result of: more p

My first location will be at Santa Clara University, where I will ask at least four teachers if I can administer a questionnaire to their students. The students will be asked to participate in a study assessing the role cohabitation has on getting to know your partner better before marriage. I am aware that many college students have not been in a cohabiting relationship, so there will be a section on the survey pertaining to those that have never been married or cohabited. There will be at least 80 subjects asked to participate to include many examples and opinions in my study.

Two of the studies relied on marriage license records to determine trends in cohabitation (Gwartney-Gibbs/Houts, Robins, & Huston). These studies examined marriage application licenses in a designated area that provided information showing premarital. The subjects in these studies were generally younger adults in the working and middle class. Couples were coded as cohabiting if they supplied identical home addresses on their marriage license. The main issue addressed was whether premarital cohabiting couples postponed marriage longer than non-cohabiting couples.

My second location will be at my doctor's office. I thought this would be a good location because of the heavy traffic, and the time subjects will have to fill out the questionnaire. Unlike the subjects at Santa Clara University, the doctor's office will have a range of age groups. Patients will be asked to participate in a study assessing the role of cohabitation has on getting to know your partner better before marriage. 60 subjects will be asked to participate to include many examples.

The study by Arland Thornton (1989) had extensive comparisons of data. This study used data from The General Social Survey, Monitoring the Future, and Study of American Families. Since 1972 The General Social Survey has been conducted annually by the National Opinion Research Center. Information for this survey was collected through face-to-face personal interviews of English speaking person's 18 years and older in the United States. Monitoring the Future is a survey conducted by University of Michigan through self-administered questionnaires given to high school seniors in the United States. Study of American Families is a panel study of mothers and children, with the samples being drawn from the 1961 birth records from the Detroit Metropolitan Area. The mothers were interviewed in person in 1962, with several interviews conducted by telephone between 1962 and 1985. The children born in 1961 were interviewed in 1980 and 1985 when they were 18 and 23 years of age. The information obtained from all of these surveys analyzed attitudes toward family values and beliefs.

The only problem with this study is that it will rely more on opinion, instead of hard evidence. Even though hard evidence is useful in studies, the focus on opinions will help realize how society accepts cohabitation.

Another effect that researchers have linked to cohabitation is the sharp decline in marriage rates and the high rate of marriage postponement. Only about one-half of first cohabitation unions end in marriage, and the longer a couple lives together the less likely it is that they will marry (CLASP, 1998). Patricia Gwartney-Gibbs (1986) studied the characteristics of premarital cohabitors versus non-cohabiting couples. In her study she found that not only did cohabitors experience unsuccessful and unstable marriages, she also found an overwhelmingly high rate of delayed marriages. Another study highlighted changes in married and unmarried cohabitation between 1975 and 1980 (Spanier, 1980). This study found a trend in the direction of postponement of marriage for a significantly high number of unmarried couples. It was suggested that unmarried couples are being drawn more carefully into the mainstream of society and that society is more willing to ignore marital status. Because there is not a he

Some common words found in the essay are:
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