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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Researchers have found that couples who live together before marriage are more likely to have communication problems that could lead to divorce.
We found that those people who live together were more negative and less positive when resolving a marital problem and when providing support to their partner," Dr. Catherine L. Cohan, of Pennsylvania State University in University Park, told Reuters Health.
Cohan and colleague Stacey Kleinbaum interviewed 92 couples who had been married for less than 2 years. The couples were primarily white and college-educated, and none had children. Some of the couples had cohabited--before marriage with their current spouse or with others--while some had not.
The investigators found that husbands and wives who had lived together before marriage were more verbally aggressive, less supportive of one another and more generally hostile than the spouses who had not lived together, according to the report published in the February issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family.
According to the authors, it is possible that people who live together before marriage enter the relationship with lower commitment. "The open-ended nature of the relationship," they note, "may cause them to be less motivated to develop their conflict resolution and support skills."
I've heard the argument that living together may help to determine if the two of you are compatible. This is an interesting counterpoint.
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