Married parents 10 times more likely to stay together
New research from the UK has reinforced the importance of marriage in providing the best environment to raise children by revealing that married parents are 10 times more likely to stay together than cohabiting couples with children.
At a time when cohabitation is markedly on the increase in both the UK and Australia, the research showed that only one in 15 cohabiting relationships lasts until the first child turns 16, and that the stability of these relationships is on the decline.
In 2006 only 7 per cent of couples who were unmarried when their child was born were still together by the time their child turned 16 (down from 36 per cent in 1992), whereas 75 per cent of couples who were married when their child was born were still together when the child turned 16 (up from 70 per cent in 1992).
The comprehensive study entitled ‘Cohabitation in the 21st Century’ was carried out by Christian think-tank the Jubilee Centre and was based on almost 30,000 family cases.
Its findings should be of grave concern to Australians, with the proportion of children born outside of marriage here having almost doubled since 1988 – and one in three children now having unmarried parents. According to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures the number of children born out of wedlock reached 34 per cent in 2008, compared with 19 per cent in 1988.
The Jubilee Centre’s report also dispels some common myths about cohabitation serving as a good trial marriage or reducing the risk of divorce.
The report states that while two-thirds of cohabiting couples do go on to marry, cohabitation “forms a route into divorce and separation”.
“Cohabitation is typically a short-lived and fragile state on its own terms, and those couples who cohabit prior to marriage are at increased risk of divorce”, the report said.
The report has once more thrown the spotlight on the need for governments and the community to promote and advantage marriage because of its key role in building a healthy society and avoiding the heavy social and financial cost of family breakdown.