Why Not Take Her for a Test Drive?
Thinking of moving in with your significant other, just to see if marriage is a good idea? Turns out living together isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
The Census reports a 72 percent increase in the number of cohabiting couples since 1990. Unfortunately, research shows that cohabitation is correlated with greater likelihood of unhappiness, and domestic violence in the relationship.
Cohabiting couple report lower levels of satisfaction in the relationship than married couples. Women are more likely to be abused by a cohabiting boyfriend than a husband. Children are more likely to abused by their mothers’ boyfriends than by her husband, even if the boyfriend is their biological father. If a cohabiting couple ultimately marries, they tend to report lower levels of marital satisfaction and a higher propensity to divorce.
Recent reports and commentaries on cohabitation tend to downplay these difficulties. I suspect this is because people do not know how to make sense of the research findings. Many people imagine that living together before marriage resembles taking a car for a test drive. The “trial period” gives people a chance to discover whether they are compatible. This analogy seems so compelling that people are […]
Sandy Bober shares her personal testimony about being raped in college, her infection with an STD and her struggles and ultimate victory to regain her self-esteem, healthy relationships and a successful marriage.
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Inspirational Quotes
Recent Articles
Why the Act of Marriage (Still) Makes a Difference
by Harry Benson, MARCH 16, 2022
Highlights
- Marriage isn’t a guarantee of success. But in a world where all of us mess up, get in bad moods, behave badly sometimes, and treat others not very well, we need something that helps give us a chance.
- Marriage has three ingredients that are more like options for cohabitation: it involves a decision, a plan, and the support of friends and family.
- Friends and family support marriage by affirming the choice we’ve made and holding us to account for that choice.
It would be easy to think that marriage is on the […]
16 Manipulation Quotes From Experts to Help You Avoid Being Controlled
Charlotte Hilton Andersen Feb. 17, 2022 TheHealthy.com
Emotional manipulators use gaslighting and other shifty techniques to get what they want from you. Peruse these manipulation quotes so you can recognize this behavior quickly, and stop it in its tracks.
If you’ve ever been emotionally manipulated—and really, who hasn’t at some point or another?—then it’s likely your experience left you searching for answers. In fact, psychoanalyst Robin Stern, PhD, co-founder and Associate Director for the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, tells The Healthy that sheer confusion is one of the hallmark signs that someone’s just taken you for a ride.
Adds Amelia Kelley, PhD, therapist, […]