Emerging Family Patterns in Africa

Emerging Family Patterns in Africa
Cohabitation
The term cohabitation is most frequently applied to couples who are not married. Often, it describes an arrangement whereby two people decide to live together on a long term or permanent basis in an emotionally and/or sexually intimate relationship. Today, cohabitation is a common pattern among people especially in the Western world. While living together out of wedlock was once considered “shacking up” or “living in sin”, studies have shown that the number of unmarried couples living together increased tenfold from 1960 to 2000, and that most of all first marriage begin with unmarried cohabitation.