Even though half of all couples live together before marriage, some Penn State researchers aren't so sure it is a good idea. They found that cohabitation before the ring is linked to troubled relationships and a higher rate of divorce.
Claire Kamp, a doctorial candidate in human development at Penn State, studied the marital happiness of couples from 1964 through 1980. Just 30 years ago, only one in ten couples lived together before swapping vows. The small minority who had cohabited first reported less happiness and more martial conflict than those who waited to move in.
Kamp compared those data to similar studies from 1981 to 1997, when cohabitation had become more commonplace. Marital bliss did not edge upward as living together became more widespread. Cohabitators still had a higher divorce rate and a higher level of discontent in their married life compared to couples who'd been living separately before tying the knot.
