Marriage vs Cohabitation

Most people have no clue about the differences between marriage and

cohabitation. Marriage is the basic foundation of civil society; it is a pact with

legal standing, privileges, obligations, and responsibilities. Cohabitation is a

limited, ambiguous commitment, without clear, binding obligations (Crouse,

2012). Law is appropriate where the aspect is clearly defined. Various

explanations and elaborations on the many benefits of marriage, and the

significantly impacting disadvantages of cohabitation will attempt to persuade

an audience that it is not within the best interest of society to protect

cohabitation by law like marriage is.

First, marriage is healthier and more satisfying for those involved

emotionally, physically, mentally, and financially. Dr. Jan Stets, a leading

scholar on cohabitating relationships found that “cohabitating couples

compared to married couples have less healthy relationships. They have lower

relationship quality, lower stability, and a higher level of disagreements”

(Stranton, 2009). Cohabitants are not as satisfied as married persons with

their relationships (Yelsma, n.d.). Marriage is a powerful creator and sustainer

of human and social capital for adults as well as children, about as important

as education when it comes to promoting the health, wealth, and well-being of

adults and communities (Gallagher, 2000).

In virtually every way that social scientists can measure, married people

do much better than the cohabitating, unmarried, or divorced: they live longer,

healthier, happier, and more affluent lives. 40 percent of married people,

compared with about a quarter of cohabiters, say they are "very happy" with

life in general. Married people are also only about half as likely as cohabiters to

say they are unhappy with their lives. One recent study found that "married

persons have a significantly higher level of happiness than persons who are not

married," even after controlling for gender, age, education, children, church...