cohabitation

MORGAN

Suggests the reason we cohabit is because we are scared of divorce.

FLOUR AND BUCHANON

Marriage is no longer economically necessary for women so fewer are choosing to get married.

COAST

Defines cohabitation as a 'sexual but non married partnership'. More people have experienced cohabitation and more people accept it as a valid living arrangement. Teenagers now accept a period of cohabitation even if marriage is the long term goal.

Evaluation

Cohabitation is an unstable family type as it is easier to break up

Evaluation- CROW

families are becoming more democratic and based on choice but the amount of change is overstated, there has always been a variety of family types but people were more discrete.

Evaluation- KIERNAN

it's difficult to generalise about cohabiting couples, they may include couples about to marry, those opposed to marriage and those testing the strength of the relationship