Cohabiting

Contemporary objections to cohabitation

The rise in the number of cohabiting couples and children born out of wedlock in the Western world has made cohabitation a strong focus of sociological research. The rise in cohabiting couples in the United States, from around 450,000 in 1960 to 7.5 million in 2011 has been accompanied by US research performed on child development within cohabiting households. Opponents of cohabitation say non-marital parenting is an unsuitable environment for a child's development. One study from 2002 correlated lower numeracy skills and higher delinquency to children of cohabiting couples; however, recent studies that control for factors including poverty, the educational level of parents and violence in the home show children of cohabiting couples are developmentally similar to peers of comparable married couples.