In light of this research, it appears that children born to cohabiting couples are more vulnerable to being raised by parents who will eventually separate, considering the decline in commitment and the ease with which their parents can end the relationship because it is not legally binding. As mentioned above, one of the benefits of marriage to society is having a stable environment in which to raise children. However, cohabitation, which is a much more flexible commitment than marriage with fewer guarantees, is steadily becoming an American cultural norm. If this trend continues, the result could be more children growing up in unmarried and potentially unstable families with parents who may not have a long-term commitment to each other. This phenomenon leaves children more vulnerable to the negative outcomes mentioned above, further underscoring the need to promote marriage and marital stability. The importance of marital stability for children's benefits may not be unique to American families. In Canada, the type of family composition in which a child grows up has a significant effect on smoking among adolescents (Razaz-Rahmati, Nourian, & Okoli, 2011). Those raised in two-parent families have lower rates of adolescent smoking than those raised in single-parent families (Razaz-Rahmati et al., 2011). Furthermore, parental marital status influences teenage pregnancy for adolescent girls in South-South Africa; those raised with intact families had a lower rate of teenage pregnancy than those raised in single-parent families (Ugoji, 2011). Spain has seen a 76.05% increase in single-parent families since 2009 (Navarro-Galera et al., 2013). As a result of this increase, single-parent families are economically disadvantaged and continue... middle of paper... that those who grew up in a single-parent family, an unmarried family, or a cohabiting family, for example, have correlations negative with the behavioral well-being of children and with the increase in the infant mortality rate (Ryan, 2012). Overall, divorce has negative consequences not only for spouses, but also for children and society in general. Children's academic success and choices are also influenced by their parents' marital status. Bulanda and Manning (2008) found that children with cohabiting parents were less likely to graduate from high school than children raised in married families. Furthermore, children born to unmarried parents were more likely to have sex at a younger age and to have a teenage pregnancy (Bulanda & Manning, 2008). These are just some of the consequences of a society where children are born to unmarried parents, and perhaps a vision of what could happen if this trend continues.