Investigation of the Causes and Motivations of the Youth Trends to Cohabitation Relationships: A Qualitative Study

With due attention to appearing new forms of relationships before marriage among young people in recent years, the aim of this study was to discover the causes and motivations of people to choose this way of life. The qualitative methodology was selected as the dominant methodology. Snowball sampling was used to find samples. Data were collected from 23 men and women who engaged in a cohabiting, they were interviewed in semi-structured manner. Results of the interviews were divided into several categories. Major of participants lived in Bandar Abbas, Kerman and Tehran. After analyzing the data with an interpretive approach, six main categories were elicited as the reasons of youth trends to cohabitation: ready for marriage and concern about its results, the financial benefits, emotional and sexual needs, concerns about the results of divorce, a decrease in supervisory and support role of family and compatibility test and trial for marriage. The slow and creeping spread of cohabiting, high divorce rates, emotional and sexual infidelity, and the prevalence of Western-style relationships settled before marriage threaten all Iranian families. And solving these problems needs a serious commitment on the macro-level officials and experts to review the employment policy, economy, entrepreneurship, TV programs, education in higher levels and cultural policies.