Reserch: Hanu Students attitudes to cohabitation

Bảng khảo sát, nghiên cứu và đánh giá về thái độ của sinh viên Đại học Hà Nội (Hanu) đối với vấn đề sống thử và ảnh hưởng của chúng tới cuộc sống sinh viên. Dữ liệu được thu thập từ 150 sinh viên đại học Hà Nội. A survey, research and evaluation of the attitudes of Hanoi University students (Hanu) on cohabitation and their impact on student life. Data were collected from 150 university students in Hanoi.

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: 20 th May, 2015

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.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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,

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

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"

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

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

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 convenience-related 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

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

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