How long did you date?

[glatt]

Hey, that's a good site. I'm glad you found it. All I could find in my quick search were a bunch of religious sites and the one I linked to. This is the actual CDC study. Sweet.

Even if there is no causal relationship between living together and the higher rate of divorce, shouldn't someone who is living together take that statisitic as a wake-up call? There is a correlation, even if it isn't causal. Even this site states clearly that if you are living with someone before marriage, you have a 9% greater chance of getting a divorce than if you aren't. (So what does that correspond to, a 60% divorce rate instead of a 50% one for the general public? I don't know those numbers) Regardless of the reasons, that should be a warning to anyone cohabitating before marriage.

I would suggest that anyone in that position take a hard look at their relationship and motivations before getting married.

The website you link to has some pretty good advice for cohabitators who plan to get married.

[Kitsune]

Originally Posted by glatt

Even if there is no causal relationship between living together and the higher rate of divorce, shouldn't someone who is living together take that statisitic as a wake-up call?

Sure -- it means that before you get married, you should be: over the age of 25, religious, have a college education, and have an income of more than $50k/year. Lastly and least significant, you shouldn't cohabitate. If you have all of that, you're set based on the statistics.

Originally Posted by glatt

The website you link to has some pretty good advice for cohabitators who plan to get married.

Once school is out of the way, I'll be staring down the barrel of that gun. I'm really looking forward to it!

[Ridgeplate]

What's with all this "cohabitate" garbage? It's called Livin' in SIN!
Why, I'd condemn the lot of you if I weren't a heathen.

[Munchkin]

Originally Posted by glatt

I would suggest that anyone in that position take a hard look at their relationship and motivations before getting married.

ANYONE who is going to get married should take a hard look at their relationship and motivations.

As for the stats...if we all just said "screw it, I guess im not gonna get married" just because their was a possibility that we would get a divorce, no one would get married (well ... almost no one)...

About overall divorce stats :

I think divorce rates are high now for a lot of societal reasons. I think the biggest one has to be that women work now, and are no longer bound to their husbands for survival...therefor if theyre not happy, they get out.

There isn't as much of a social stigma attatched to getting divorced..its just more of an accepted practice.

Id really like to see a study done about how many couples didnt get married because they lived together first. That could be a lot more people counted among the divorced.