According to a new study by the National Center for Marriage and Family Research, "playing house" may no longer be such a bad thing. They found that the amount of couples living together before walking down the aisle has gone up from 10 percent in the 1960s to 60 percent now. Their research also found that the odds of staying together were the same for engaged couples who go the traditional route and those who live together before marriage. But, couples who live together without being engaged have higher divorce rates

A range of factors contribute to these numbers, including education level, family history, and the obvious…commitment issues. "I sort of knew he would be part of my life long-term,” said Hillary Mickell, a San Francisco woman who first moved in with her husband in 1985 when they were students at Boston University. “I wasn't thinking.`He's moving in with me, is he ever going to marry me?'" Another interesting finding: Nearly half of first marriages will break up within 20 years, with 37 percent of Black women versus 53 percent of Black men lasting that long in their first marriage.

Do these findings seem consistent with the state of the Black family? Does cohabitation work for us?