Write 3 page essay on the topic How does the cohabitation of partners affect the children living in the home.South Carolina, “5 month old Joshua Dial was shaken by his mother’s boyfriend in a mann

Write 3 page essay on the topic How does the cohabitation of partners affect the children living in the home.

South Carolina, “5 month old Joshua Dial was shaken by his mother’s boyfriend in a manner so violent that the baby immediately lost consciousness and suffered severe brain trauma,” (Wilcox 2011). Joshua died soon afterwards according to local police reports. A Federal study indicates that a case such as this is just one of many of abuse in the New American lifestyle. According to this report children living with their mother and her boyfriend are 11 times more likely to be sexually, physically, or emotionally abused than children living with their biological married parents. Also, these same children are six times more likely to be physically, emotionally or educationally neglected. One of the most dangerous places for a child to be in America today is in a home that includes an unrelated male boyfriend, and the danger increases even more when that boyfriend is left to care for a child by himself. (Wilcox 2011).

This study confirms what social science has shown for some time. The information tells us that children are more likely to thrive and survive when they are raised in a stable intact home headed by their married parents. Cohabitation is also associated with other disorders among these children such as depression, and feelings of inferiority. One of the main reasons these children do not thrive is linked to not only abuse, but also instability since the partners are not committed. These children are 119 percent more likely to have their parents break up, children exposed to changing routines, new homes and caretakers and to not thrive. (Wilcox 2011).

Almost 20 percent of births today are to cohabiting parents, according to Susan L. Brown of the Center for Family and Demographic Research. (Brown 2008-2011). The effects of this type of family lifestyle are just beginning to be understood. However, it is clear that it is a less stable family structure than a married couple or single-mother households. Looking at child development, a child that spends