Love and co-habitation

Love and marriage apparently go together like a horse and carriage. Unfortunately a horse and carriage also entails a bumpy ride and a fair amount of sh#%. To compensate the research does indicate that marriage offers a significant amount of health benefits. In a sign of the times though, new research has revealed that co-habitation without marriage may offer even greater benefits.

In the past many studies into the health and overall wellbeing effects of marriage have either compared married people to single people or has compared married couples to co-habiting couples at a single point in time. This study however, compared marriage to co-habitation looking at what changes when single men and women move into marriage or cohabitation and the extent to which any effects of marriage and cohabitation continue over time.

To study this researchers followed 2787 single women and men. Over the course of six years 896 of these people either married or moved in with a partner. The study focused on key areas of well-being considering happiness, levels of depression, health, and social ties.

Marriage and co-habitation showed immediate short-term benefits with a sudden spike in levels of happiness and drops in levels of depression. This is the proverbial “honeymoon” period. In the longer term however, individuals who were part of a married or co-habiting couple experienced less contact with friends and parents.

The gains for married couples seemed to arise from more “formal” effects like shared expenses but co-habiting couples showed as experiencing greater gains in happiness and self-esteem. The researchers theorise that co-habitation may come with fewer unwanted obligations than marriage and allow for more flexibility, autonomy, and personal growth. In modern society around much of the world the stigma around co-habitation has disappeared and the social lustre of marriage has dimmed. So without the stress of social disapproval co-habitation may offer many of the benefits of marriage without the downsides.

In the end then, while love and marriage may well be that horse and carriage, whether married or co-habiting, things will go better for all concerned if the horse is given a free rein.