POST: 5 

This week in Family Relations class something that was not very surprising but I thought of as interesting was the differences in relationships and marriages when cohabiting,(living together before marriage) was present. Studies have shown that in many areas of life cohabitation turns out to be negative in the lives who do it. Such as divorce, violence, split parents, infidelity, and child depression all show to increase as cohabitation is present. Along with physical intimacy, security, and even health tend to go down as cohabitation is present. I feel as though this media and popular trend, gives young adults a very wrong image of what is the ideal, and it turns out to be something it is not. The sacred institution of marriage cannot be replaced and there is a certain way to do things to ensure the successful result of a couple, and that is not cohabitation.