Some Scientific studies have also shown that married individuals perform better than their unmarried counterparts in the workplace. There is an indirect correlation between success in the workplace and probability of divorce, since it is easy to see how a stressful work environment can take a toll in domestic life. By providing the necessary mental balance and peace during office hours, marriage reinforces its strength in the process. But it should be added that live-in relationships have increased in frequency only in recent years and the study results may have been skewed by the dis-proportionality in numbers. The studies are flawed to the extent of grouping all unmarried people under one category, without distinguishing between long-term partners and single men and women.
Some historians are of the view that marriage is the oldest human institution. With it came the allied institution of the family. It is not hard to see that couple who are not committed to each other cannot successfully raise a family. For the healthy development of any child, the support and guidance of both parents is important. As statistics on single parent households in Britain shows, children growing up in such environments are likely to face developmental problems including low self-esteem. An individual who has lived with someone before marriage might have had the luxury of lack of encumbrances. But in a marital relationship the equation completely changes with the siring of offspring. Especially for men who have had several pre-marital relationships, the birth of a child would prove to be a tough challenge. The man who had experienced a care-free and unfettered life so far would be at a loss to cope with the birth of a child. It is very likely that the marriage would eventually fail due to his inadequacies as a father, jeopardizing the future of the innocent child. In this way, by force of habit, individuals involved in pre-marital relationships have higher likelihood of resorting to divorce. To the contrary, it can also be argued that an individual who has had premarital relationships ‘learns’ to adjust to the personality of his partner more easily, thereby bringing a sense of peace and harmony to the relationship. Pre-marital relationships also serve as a test-drive for inexperienced couple, thereby helping them to assess their adequacy and capacity to raise a family later in life. Hence there is no conclusive argument for or against pre-marital relationships. While conventional marriage has stood the test of time, there is no reason to believe that it is the only successful mode of conjugal relationship. (Spurlock, 2005)
Considering all the different viewpoints, it is reasonably clear that there is no conclusive evidence to support one side of the argument against the other. By application of deductive logic one can conclude that people who have had pre marital relationships only have a slight disadvantage when they eventually get married. One should also remember that contemporary society does not yet recognize same-sex marriages, thereby denying gay and lesbian couple the necessary legal status and their claim to adopt children. This is an area in which conventional marriages have not provided answers and to that extent they will remain incomplete. But there is no denying the fact that the time-tested institution of marriage provides the basic template, through the extension of which all long-term interpersonal relationships could be given legal recognition in the future (Woodward, 2003).
Works Cited:
Fitzpatrick, M. A. (1987). Marriage and verbal intimacy. In V. J. Derlega & J. Berg (Eds. ), Self-disclosure: Theory, Research, and Therapy (pp. 131–154). New York: Plenum.
Berry, Joyce Hamilton. “Expert Advice on Love & Relationships: Doctor Joyce Answers Your Questions about Marriage and Dating.” Ebony Aug. 2007: 55.
Dinovella, Elizabeth. “Last Comes Love.” The Progressive Sept. 2005: 47+.
Johnson, M. P. (1995). Patriarchal terrorism and common couple violence: Two forms of violence against women. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 57, 283–294
Lance, Larry M. “College Student Sexual Morality Revisited: A Consideration of Pre
Marital Sex, Extra-Marital Sex and Childlessness between 1940 and 2000-2005.” College Student Journal 41.3 (2007): 727+.
Mashek, Debra J., and Arthur Aron, eds. Handbook of Closeness and Intimacy. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004.
Mccabe, Marita P. “The Interrelationship between Intimacy, Relationship Functioning and Sexuality among Men and Women in Committed Relationships.” The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality 8.1 (1999): 31.
Mehay, Stephen L., and William R. Bowman. “Marital Status and Productivity: Evidence from Personnel Data.” Southern Economic Journal 72.1 (2005): 63+.
Mosier, Will. “Intimacy: The Key to a Healthy Relationship.” Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association 9.1 (2006): 34+.
Spurlock, John C. “Modern Love: Romance, Intimacy, and the Marriage Crisis.” Journal of Social History 39.1 (2005): 287+.
Woodward, Kath. Social Sciences: The Big Issues. London: Routledge, 2003.