In 1969, 21 percent of young adults said that premarital sex was acceptable.

In the 1970s, 47 percent of young adults were still critical of premarital sex (thinking premarital sex is wrong or immoral).

By 1985, 52 percent of young adults said premarital sex was
acceptable.

Today 60 percent of young adults say premarital sex is acceptable, and 38 percent say it is wrong.

Overall, 53 percent of young adults say premarital sex is acceptable, and 38 percent say sex before marriage is wrong. [The information came from a New Jersey-based Gallup poll, from an article in which a majority of young adults say premarital sex is acceptable, in the National Catholic Reporter 2001 (from http://www.personal.psu.edu/ faculty/n/x/nxd10/transition/group24/premar.htm).]

More Research
Professors William G. Axinn, of the University of Chicago, and Arland Thornton, of the University of Michigan, concluded that unmarried couples who live together are less committed to the institution of marriage and "cohabiting experiences significantly increase young people's acceptance of divorce."

Their study, published in the August edition of Demography, covered 867 families of mothers and their children interviewed from 1962 to 1985. They say the link between living together and divorce runs both ways-increased divorce rates cause more people to choose nonmarital relationships, while cohabitation "may have a feedback effect" of increasing the acceptance and likelihood of divorce. Axinn and Thornton did not compare divorce rates in their study, but cited other studies that found couples who live together before marriage have divorce rates 50 to 100 percent higher than those who don't.

The sociologists said young people who are committed to the institution of marriage, and who would be disappointed if they don't marry, are more likely to marry without living together.

They also found that children of parents who are less positive about the joys of matrimony are more likely to move in before getting married.

Census Bureau figures showed that in 1990 there were 2.9 million unmarried couples living together, up 80 percent from 1980. (Information from the Spokesman Review, September 3, 1992, p. 1.)

Couples who cohabited before marrying each other are 15 percent more likely to divorce than those who did not ("Signs of the Times," USA Today, September 1992, p. 6).