The American College
of Paediatricians is a national medical association of licensed physicians and
healthcare professionals who specialize in the care of infants, children, and
adolescents. The mission of the College is to enable all children to reach their
optimal physical and emotional health and well-being. They issued this press release on 23
March.
With its position statement, Cohabitation,
the American College of Paediatricians cautions adolescents and young adults
about the negative consequences of cohabitation for both themselves and their
children, and urges parents to teach their children about the advantages of
waiting until marriage.
Research shows that, rather than serving as a stepping stone
to a healthy marriage, living together before marriage (cohabitation) makes
couples more likely to break-up and more likely to divorce if they do
marry. Partners who cohabitate are more likely to be unfaithful than
married spouses, and are more likely to be violent toward the other
partner. Poverty is more common among cohabitating women because their
male partners are less likely to work and more likely to spend their time on
personal pleasure than do married men. Women in a cohabitating
relationship are ten times more likely to have an abortion than married women,
and therefore suffer from its associated mortality and morbidity.
Children also suffer due to parental cohabitation. Not
only do they have an increased risk of losing a parent to divorce or
separation, but this may happen multiple times. Children whose parents
are cohabiting at their birth are over 4 times more likely to suffer separation
of their parents by their third birthdays than those whose parents were married
when they were born. Couples often enter into cohabitation with a child
from a previous relationship leading to the common scenario of child abuse
involving a live-in boy friend or a stepfather. Children whose parents lived
together (before or after their birth) are at increased risk for living in
poverty, achieving lower levels of education, experiencing school failure and
earning lower incomes as adults. In addition, they face a greater risk of
suffering from medical neglect, as well as chronic physical and mental health
problems, including suicide, substance, alcohol and tobacco abuse. Finally,
there are also higher rates of behaviour problems and incarcerations among
these children.
The American College of Paediatricians urges parents and paediatricians
to educate adolescents about the risks of cohabitation and the life-long
benefits of marriage for the entire family and society. The institution
of marriage is one of the best and most cost effective public health tools society
has. Saving sexual relationships for marriage should be promoted by the media,
school teachers and policymakers alike. Adolescents and young adults should be
encouraged to pursue this path for achieving optimal health for themselves,
their children and society at large.
For further
information, see Effects of Cohabitation on the Men and Women and Involved,
and Effects of Parental Cohabitation and other Non-marital Sexual
Activity on Children.
