Multiple empirical studies demonstrate that premarital cohabitation correlates with lower marital quality and increased risks of marital dissolution, supporting the claim that marital happiness and stability relate to whether couples lived together before marriage.
The claim states that marital happiness correlates with whether couples lived together before marriage. Retrieved papers including [1], [3], [5], and [6] consistently show empirical links between premarital cohabitation and measures of marital success, quality, or stability (such as divorce rates), supporting the existence of a correlation. There are no papers refuting the correlation entirely, though some note that selectivity plays a role. Thus, the verdict is SUPPORTED.