Cohabitation: Its Impact on Marital Success

Parents, marriage and family counselors, parent educators, and students of the family have been concerned for more than a decade about the impact of premarital cohabitation on the lives of the participants. The results of research reported in this article indicate that persons with a history of premarital cohabitation do not describe their marriages differently from persons without a history of cohabitation. The authors conclude that premarital cohabitation may not provide types of learning experiences that significantly alter-in either a positive or negative direction-an individual's success in marriage.