A new study published in the Journal of Family Psychology showed that couples who live together before  getting engaged are at higher risk of divorce than those who move in together after marriage. Also, couples who live together before engagement and then get married, have lower satisfaction in their marriages.

The study was conducted at University of Denver and led by Galena Rhoades, senior researcher,, research professor, and Howard Markman, professor of psychology.

“We think that some couples who move in together without a clear commitment to marriage may wind up sliding into marriage partly because they are already cohabiting,” Rhoades says.

“Cohabiting to test a relationship turns out to be associated with the most problems in relationships,” Rhoades says. “Perhaps if a person is feeling a need to test the relationship, he or she already knows some important information about how a relationship may go over time.”

Source – UrekAlert