Reserch: Hanu Students attitudes to cohabitation

HANOI UNIVERSITY
FOUNDATION STUDIES DEPARTMENT
--------ɞʚ--------

HANU STUDENTS' ATTITTUDES TOWARDS
COHABITATION AND ITS EFFECTS

Instructor: Trịnh Hoài Thu
Students: Mạc Khánh Linh
Đặng Thanh Huyền
Class: 2K-14
Course: EAP Writing
Date: 20th May, 2015


ABSTRACT

Cohabitation is becoming more and more familiar to students. It is not just a phenomenon
that became a lifestyle of youth. It is clearly that society is entering an era marking a
turning point in the economy, science and especially the great development of information
technology. As a result, the living standards of humans get higher and higher.
Unfortunately, these values are being eroded by pragmatism, materialism, which causes
many potential issues. Furthermore, young people today abuse the freedom to run the
epicurean lifestyle, which they believe is trendy and stylish. They ignore the moral values
are the foundation of the human essence. This problem is not only the concern of the parents
but also the challenge of educators. This paper based on the data obtained from students
within Hanoi University investigates Hanu students' attitudes towards cohabitation and its
effects. The study adopts a quantitative methodology using means of both secondary and
primary research (questionnaires and interviews). It is hoped that this empirical research
could help students to a healthy lifestyle.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Students' thought about "cohabitation" concept .................................3
Figure 2: Students' sources of information ........................................................4
Figure 3: Students' opinion about the causes of "cohabitation" .........................5
Figure 4: The percentage of the consequences of "cohabitation".......................6

I. Introduction
It is generally assumed that cohabitation has become more popular with the youth,
especially university students in Vietnam. During the international economic
integration, parallel with the enormous benefits of economy and trade, Vietnam also
approve the influences of other cultures and modern lifestyles in developed countries
towards the young and cohabitation is no exception. "Cohabitation", is obviously no
longer a strange concept but it has become a phenomenon, a movement of young
people. Being defined as an arrangement where two people who are not married live
together in an intimate relationship, particularly an emotionally or sexually intimate
one, on a long-term or permanent basis. This relationship always leads to a lot of
potential risks such as financial or academic dependency, high rate of abortion in
tertiary institutions or even domestic violence. Hence, it is essential that a research be
conducted to raise student’s awareness of cohabitation. Particularly, it is crucial to us,
students of Hanu – whose lives is full of challenges and enticement. Therefore, this
issue will be demonstrated in our research, which focuses on examining the impacts
of cohabitation on students. Specifically, a new analysis of Census data shows that

cohabitation is more diverse than most people realize. According to Bradford Wilcox,
the director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, people
who were cohabiting were less likely to conform to the traditional standards of
marriage such as responsibility, fidelity, and commitment. More surprisingly,
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cohabitation is growing sharply in recent years, but it has really been those with less
education that have been driving that trend (Mark Mather, 2012). However, no one
knows exactly when cohabitation began in Vietnam; some suppose that it appeared
about 10 years ago. Especially, the main part of unmarried couples are students. Most
of them assume that cohabitation is a modern trend, and they tend to live together
even when first year students. According to a survey done by Open University of Ho
Chi Minh city in 2010, there are more than one third of the young cohabiting before
marriage.
Bearing in mind, this research, which is based on data from students of Hanoi
University students, will give an overview about cohabitation of Hanu students and
discuss the question of how cohabitation affect students' life and what Hanu students
should do to have a healthy lifestyle.
2. Method
This research paper is based on primary source of date obtained by conducting
questionnaires and interviews. At the beginning, 100 Hanu students were randomly
selected to fill the questionnaires with their choices. All the questions were divided
into three main groups. Firstly, nine open-ended questions and five partially closed
questions were set up to evaluate the understanding of students about "cohabitation".
Besides, a liker scale was designed in order to access the level impact of some factors
which lead to cohabit. Additionally, with the fundamental data from the
questionnaires, four interview questions used the structured interview with ten
participants who had the prominent answers were conducted so as to investigate
further into students' thought about "cohabitation" as well as its probable effects on

their lifestyle.
3. Results

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This section outlines the results of the survey conducted to discover Hanu students'
attitudes towards "cohabitation". As expected, the acquired results objectively reflect
their understanding of "cohabitation" as well as its negative influences.

Figure 1: Students' thought about "cohabitation" concept

As can be seen from Figure 1, page 2, the majority of Hanu students (67%) stated that
"cohabitation" is considered as a relationship between two people who live as a
couple before marriage without marriage registration while the other concepts were
given by a small proportion of respondents, at about 10%.

Figure 2: Students' sources of information

When asked " What means do you know about "cohabitation" via ?", 90% of the 100
Hanu students who were questioned reported that books and the Internet were the
main resources. Besides, environmental education and friends also play considerable
roles in making students access the phrase of "cohabitation", according to nearly half
of participants (49% and 47% in turn). Surprisingly, only 9% of respondents stated
that they known about this through adults.

Figure 3: Students' opinion about the causes of "cohabitation"
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With regard to "cohabitation" causes, the lack of affection and the impacts from the
lovers are mentioned as the main source of this phenomenon by the majority of
participants, at 59% and 48% respectively. Additionally, over 30% claimed that
students had tendency to "live test" due to friends' impact who had ever experienced
whereas equivalent proportion (29%) of students believe that saving the cost of living
was also one of the reasonable causes. The other factors were given as about 20%

Figure 4: The percentage of the consequences of "cohabitation"

Turing to the consequences of "cohabitation", it is highlighted by the fact that a large
number of respondents (62%) reported that unwanted pregnancy was the very first
negative effect they thought about compared to the impact on marriage later which
has smaller percentage at 59%. In addition, students who have "lived test" are more
likely to suffer from adverse impacts on education and health, according to the
thought of over 40% of participants.

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4. Discussion of findings
The result shown above illustrates the background knowledge of Hanu students
about cohabitation and its impacts. This survey was carried out only in one university
and in a limited space so it does not cover all student’s thought about “live test”.
Nevertheless, the obtained data is beyond our expectation that most of them with a
wide range of social background conceive about the potential aspects in cohabiting.
Additionally, few of participants do not understand thoroughly about living together
before marriage through interviews.
4.1 The main causes of cohabitation
On the whole, students who experienced "cohabitation" often reveal that the lack of
affection is the main source of this phenomenon (Figure 4, p.6). The very first reason

comes from family. It can be seen that the family element is an important factor
affecting directly in whether students accept it or not. Family is where each person
was born and grew up, family culture greatly influences the lifestyle characteristics of
each person. Parents are the persons who have the biggest influence on their children.
In some cases, the family life is unhappy. Cursing and daily quarrels between parents
in the family are factors making young people do not want to think of marriage. On
the contrary, they consider marriage as a binding, clamping shackles, or just as an
opportunity for people to take advantage of each other. Lack of affection makes
children feel so down. When parents do not love and care about children, especially
teenagers, this will lead to a situation where you feel emotional deprivation and need
to compensate. The youth will easily accept "cohabitation" because they feel
"cohabitation" with lover can easily compensate emotions, concern and care for each
other. Thus, they get the feeling they are loved, cared and shared more. On the other
hand, due to physiological ebullience of the youth, they want to rebel and imitate the
trend of their friends.

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In cases of other researches, many couples who move to live together before
marriage reported that saving the cost of living is a major cause leading to cohabit. In
professor Sassler’s research (2004), many individuals give financial and conveniencerelated reasons for "cohabitation". Moreover, the study conducted by the National
Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) found that a quarter of cohabiting
individuals thought sharing living expenses was an important reason to live together
outside of marriage (Bumpass,1991). Sharing a house as well as domestic expenses
turns out to be cheaper nowadays when economic market price is rising dramatically.
According to 10 interviews with students, it is likely that cohabitation will help them
know more about their lover and avoid troubles in real life. They consider it as a trial
run of their relationship to confirm that whether they get on well each other or not.
In general, sharing a life before marriage comes from many reasons among Hanu

students as Dr psychologist Truong Thi Bich Ha states that: “ They come to live
together just because of curiosity, saving money and doing like the way young people
live . They try and live only to satisfy the temporary desire. On the other hand,
cultural integration makes the young feel more free in their thought.”
4.2 The impacts of cohabitation
Most Hanu students are fully aware of the downside of living test. According to
questionnaires and interviews, responders pointed out that cohabitation had many bad
consequences, especially for women. It can be linked with the effects on marriage
later (Figure 4, p6). For instance, a research conducted by Glena Rhoades of
University of Denver (2009) exposed that in 1000 couples asked, 19% of people who
had cohabited were unhappy in their marital life and divorced after that. In addition, a
study on premarital cohabitation carried out by researchers from Yale University,
Columbia University, and the Institute for Resource Development at Westinghouse
shown that the divorce rate of women who cohabited is nearly 80 percent higher than
the rate of those who do not. Overall, women having live-test relationships are more
likely to suffer physical and sexual abuse than married women. This situation can
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easily lead to unwanted pregnancy. A large number of interviewees agreed that
cohabitation affects them in term of education. Most of them reveal that they can’t
concentrate on studying when staying with their lover. Obviously, learning outcomes
reduced significantly. This apparently affects their academic performances adversely.
Moreover, it has impacts on heath problem such as depression, loss of faith in life,
stress and so on. This indicates that depression is a consequence of cohabitation
among students as a result of the emotional aftermath of broken sexual relationships.
5. Recommendation
Based on the above discussion of the findings, the following suggestions are made.
For individuals, young people should actively equip themselves with the necessary
basic knowledge about gender and cohabitation issues to protect themselves against

environmental temptation, avoid unfortunate consequences in the future. In love,
students especially the girls, when being affected by lovers, should not compromise
or think about saving costs and accept to "live test". Such cohabitation relationship
cannot prove your love. It just makes you vulnerable both physically and mentally.
Regarding parents, they are the very first and most influential educators of their
children. Therefore, adults need care, love and listen to children more. Additionally,
talking to their children about sexual issues in a friendly manner is an effective way
in helping students equip with proper awareness and feel more confident in life.
Furthermore, parents also need cultivate themselves with knowledge on culture and
society to be able to advise their children.
Besides efforts from students and families, schools also must be responsible for
educating students. It is very essential to have a close relationship between the school
and the family. Schools should organize sex education sessions, workshops on sex to
help students promptly access to hot issues which are taken place in society, and its
consequences in order to avoid unwanted mistakes. With regard to the society,
authorities need to take more responsibility in the management of information,
remove the harmful information which can poison the mentality of young people. In
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addition, consulting services through telephone are considered as a reasonable
solution with aim to answer secret questions of young people, this will contribute to
help young people understand and perceive more clearly and properly about sensitive
matters.
6. Conclusion
In conclusions, "cohabitation" among young people today, especially students is a
matter of concern in society, because it is inconsistent with Vietnam's culture as well
as contrary to the habits and customs of our country. In general, Hanu students are
aware of what "cohabiting" is and recognize the negative effects that this lifestyle
brings. However, there are some limitations in students' understanding. This could

make young people take the wrong decision in love and receive unfortunate
consequences. We fully hope that the results of this study and our recommendations
will help Hanu students have a deeper view on this matter as well as equip
themselves with the useful knowledge. These subjects, as we found out from the
limitations of our research, are extremely worthy of further and deeper investigations.
Therefore, broadening the scope of the survey would most likely bring up new and
unconventional results awaiting reasoning and explanation. It is our hope that in the
future, there would be many more studies, in order to thoroughly examine all the
potential regulations as well as anomalies of this thought-provoking issue.

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REFERENCES

 Do Trong Danh. 2011, Đánh giá nhận thức và các nhân tố ảnh hưởng đến
hiện tượng sống thử trước hôn nhân của học sinh-sinh viên, Ho Chi Minh City.
 Sharon, J. 2012, 'Young parents, older adults change face of cohabitation',
USA

TODAY,

viewed

October

17,

2012,

/>

Galena, K.R., Scott, M.S. & Howard, J.M. 2013, 'Couples’ Reasons for

Cohabitation: Associations with Individual Well-Being and Relationship
Quality',

viewed

September

14,

2013,

/> 'The Consequences of Cohabitation', MARK MERRILL, viewed February 22,
2012,
/>

Kalyani. 2012, 'Reasons Why Couples Live Together Before Marriage',

Futurescopes, viewed 18 March, 2012,
/> Nguyen Thi Hong, Le Thi Thuy Hien & Hoang Thi Quang. 2013, Status of
students' attitude toward live test in students in education university - Da Nang
University, Da Nang.
APPENDIX A
QUESTIONNAIRE
We are Mac Khanh Linh and Dang Thanh Huyen, ESP students, Foundation Studies
Department, Hanoi University. We are doing a project on Hanoi University Students'
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attitudes towards "cohabitation". This questionnaire is designed to help us obtain data
for our research project. We highly appreciate your opinions which are apparently
crucial to the completion as well as the quality of our paper. Please return the
completed questionnaire by 5 May 2015. Thank you for your cooperation!
1. What is your gender ?
o Male
o Female
2. Do you live where and with whom?
o Live with family
o In the dorm
o In a dorm room with friends
o In a dorm room with lover
o In a dorm room alone
3. In school, there are regularly educational seminars on gender?
o Regularly
o Yes, but not often
o Rarely
4. In your opinion, what is "cohabitation" ?
o Living as a couple before marriage, no marriage registration
o Living together without ties.
o The relationship but not living together.
o Other (........................................................................)
5. How do you think about "cohabitation"?
o Good
o Normal
o Bad
6. Do you know about "cohabitation" via?
o

o
o
o
o

Adults
Books, Internet
Environmental Education
Friends
Other (..........................................)
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7. In your opinion, the cause of the phenomenon of "cohabitation" is from
where?
o Due to the impact from the love
o Due to see friends "live test", so also experience
o Due to the lack of affection, try living easily and sharing interest in life
o To save the cost of living
o To assert yourself
o "Live Test" to avoid confusion when real life
o Other (.......................................................................)
8. According to you, what are the consequences of "cohabitation" ?
o
o
o
o
o

Unwanted pregnancy

Depression, loss of faith in the life
Learning decline
Impact on marriage later
Other (..............................................)

9. Your review of the impact of these factors lead to "live test"?
Not affect

Normal

Family
People surrounding
Education
Culture
Society
Personal awareness
Economic conditions

10. Please indicate whether you have a boyfriend yet?
o Yes → Please go to Question 11, skip Question 13
o No → Please go to Question 13
11. Are you two have known each other for how long?
Less than 3 months
From 3-6 months
From 6 months to 1 year
Over 1 year
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Influence greatly

12. You have ever thought of "cohabitation" yet?
Yes
Never
13. After having lover, if he/she recommend to "live test", do you agree?
o Yes
Maybe
No
14. If your lover has been "live test", do you accept ?
o Accept
o Not accept
o Other (.....................................................)
15. If your love can go to marriage, do you like "cohabitation" ?
o Yes
o No

Please fill in some personal information in case we like to contact you later
Name:....................................

Male/Female: .....................................

Class: ....................................

THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION!

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APPENDIX B

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Have you ever cohabited?
2. Do you think "cohabitation" is an unhealthy lifestyle for students?
3. In your opinion, what severe impacts does "cohabitation" cause?
4. Can you suggest some ways to deal with this problem?

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