Science says: living together is no guarantee for a happy marriage

Many couples see living together as the ultimate test to see if you really fit together in the long term. The idea of getting married first and then moving in together doesn't really seem to be of this time anymore; I don't know of a single couple that has done that. It was different in the past. In fact, in the year 2000, two-thirds of the population still thought that was a great idea.

I would think that you should get to know each other first, 24 hours a day. All the good, but also the bad sides. But is living together really a guarantee for a good marriage? According to research conducted by CBS in 2017, it turns out that it’s not that significant. Still, 40 percent of all marriages end in divorce, and it now appears that it doesn't make a difference whether that couple lived together first or not.

Special professor of sustainable relationships Esther Kluwer says the following about this: ‘In fact, research shows that couples who live together first divorce more often. This is not so much due to living together itself, but can partly be explained by the fact that the group that lives together first places less value on marriage. They are less conventional and are less averse to divorce. For them, the threshold to break up is lower.’

Additionally, she also mentions that couples who live together longer and may already be engaged often do not end up making the walk to the altar. The longer you stay together unmarried, the greater the chance that you will eventually break up.

Well, there goes your relationship advice, that is worth nothing. Because I often hear around me that it is doomed to fail because a couple moved in together too quickly or because they immediately jumped into marriage. So it doesn't matter at all. Just doing what feels good to you remains, I think, the best advice.

Source: Trouw