• 24
  • August
    2011

All across the county, including in Denver, the relationships people enter and the families they form are changing. Now, a new study from the University of Virginia has found that divorce rates for married couples who have children have returned to the level at which they existed before the "divorce revolution" of the 1970s, but "family instability" is still on the rise.

The reason for this, according to researcher W. Bradford Wilcox, is that a greater proportion of couples are cohabitating without getting married. Wilcox is a sociologist at the University of Virginia and director of the National Marriage Project. Eighteen other family law scholars co-authored the study.

"Family instability" is the authors' choice of term for families that lack formal, legal bonds and exist in a more free-floating arrangement. Although divorce and flexible family set-ups can be more difficult for children to handle than fixed, stable marriages, that does not mean that divorce is automatically a bad thing for children.

All couples have their reasons for why they choose to marry or not marry. Couples who choose not to wed, however, should keep in mind just how many laws use marriage as the basis for bestowing rights and privileges. It is much harder to make a claim for a portion of assets the two of you procured together if you and your significant other separate after never having married, for instance, than it would be if the two of you had taken a trip to the altar.

If you are cohabitating with your partner but for whatever reason decide that marriage is not right for you, you might still want to speak with an attorney. A lawyer who practices family law can offer you some practical advice about big milestones, like buying a house together. If you are interested, he or she may also be able to create a contract regarding asset division that would kick in should the two of you decided to separate.

Source: United Press International, "U.S. cohabitation rate eclipses divorce," Aug. 21, 2001.