"Shacking up," or cohabitation, has long been both praised as a test drive for marriage and condemned as a replacement.
A new study of cohabitating couples, however, finds that neither of these depictions is accurate. Instead, one researcher says, living together should be recognized as a stage in the dating process in its own right, and often a precursor to nuptials.
Susan Sassler, a sociology professor at Ohio State University, interviewed undergraduate and graduate students who had been living with a romantic partner for at least three months. When she asked the students why they decided to move in with their partners, and whether they had discussed future plans, fewer than a third of interviewees reported discussing their ideas for the future before making the move. Even fewer had mentioned marriage in their discussions with their partners. And nearly a fifth specifically stated that they weren't using cohabitation as a trial for marriage.
