Families have changed in the last several decades. Instead of getting married, many people are living together or ‘cohabiting’. Some of these cohabitating couples eventually get married. Many of them break up. Very few stay together as cohabitants for long. Is cohabitation a good alternative to marriage? Is it a good way to ‘test out’ the relationship? Many researchers have looked into these questions.
In her book Marriage-Lite Patricia Morgan reviews the research into the results of cohabitation, compared with marriage, and finds that marriage is much more than ‘just a piece of paper’.  This factsheet, published by Civitas, argues that marriage fundamentally changes the nature of a relationship, leading to many striking differences.