It might have shocked your grandparents, but apparently “shacking up” is the new norm: research shows that children are now more likely to be living with two biological parents who have never married each other than with a parent who is divorced.
A University of Virginia/National Marriage Project study found that while the rate of divorce “has returned almost to the levels we saw before the divorce revolution kicked in during the 1970s…children are now more likely to be exposed to a cohabiting union than to a parental divorce.”
“In the U.S., the report finds that the breakup rate is 170 percent higher for children born to cohabiting couples up to age 12,” the National Marriage Project reported. That’s powerful statistic, especially considering than more than 40 percent of children in the country have lived in a household with a cohabiting parent before they turn 12.
