2008-08-24 20:19:39 - For Immediate Release

Ashville, NC-Thursday, August 24, 2008-Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are the new, model family as cohabitation becomes an American institution. While the incidence of celebrities living together is nothing new, there is a strange new twist. It has gone mainstream, becoming widely accepted and wildly popular among all types of Americans.

'Years of condemnation appear to be backfiring,' states marriage

counselor Dr. John Curtis, author of the new book, Happily Un-Married: Living Together & Loving It (Reed, 2008.)

'Many cohabitating couples reject the guilt-laden attempts of generations past to discourage their living arrangement. Instead, most cohabiters fear a failed marriage even more than the shroud of criticism that envelops those couples who opt to live together outside the bonds of matrimony.'

Studies show 60% of all couples who marry will cohabite first and rates of cohabitation are destined to skyrocket. The most recent surveys find that 75% of 15-18 year-olds believe living together is worthwhile as well as harmless and could be the deciding factor in making a marriage last.

New studies indicate that the stigma surrounding cohabitation is changing. Research methods are becoming more sophisticated which in turn enables social scientists more extensive information about cohabiters. New findings from a Cornell University study show that the odds of divorce among women who married their only cohabiting partner were 28% lower than among women who never cohabited before marriage.

'It's time we raise our expectations of cohabitation and our re-think our attitudes toward those who decide to live together,' Dr. Curtis continues. 'There is a commonly held myth that marriage means you will live ‘happily ever-after,' however, there is no similar assumption of cohabitation. The mantra of ‘it won't last' only serves to bring about a self-fulfilling prophecy.'

Dr. Cutis's new book, Happily Un-Married: Living Together and Loving It! is the first book to take a serious, non-judgmental look at cohabitating couples of all ages. Designed to help these couples strengthen and sustain healthy relationships, Happily Unmarried serves as an important book for anyone who is cohabitating, intends to cohabitate, or is interested in learning more about the art of living together and loving it.

The book pinpoints 20 types of cohabitating couples from young and in-love, to pregnant and pressured, and from anti-marriage advocates to seniors who cohabit to protect their pensions or inheritance. Cohabiters are just as likely to live together for convenient sex, as they are to save on taxes. Cohabiting is not just for the twenty-somethings, it is happening among all ages.

Happily Un-Married is available at www.cohabitating.org and at local bookstores or online at Amazon. For more information about Happily Un-Married: Living Together & Loving It, contact Dr. John Curtis at jcurtis@iodinc.com or call 1.828.246.0459.

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