For persons of faith, the assertion that marriage is good
for health, wealth and happiness comes as no surprise.
After all, they long have affirmed the central importance of
marriage to society.
What may come as a surprise is that the marriage assertion
is being made by a panel of social scientists as well.
For persons of faith, the assertion that marriage is good
for health, wealth and happiness comes as no surprise.
After all, they long have affirmed the central importance of
marriage to society.
What may come as a surprise is that the marriage assertion
is being made by a panel of social scientists as well.
“Marriage is more than a private emotional relationship,”
the researchers note in their recent study. “It is also a social good.
“Not every person can or should marry,” add the researchers,
who based their study on decades of research. “And not every child raised
outside of marriage is damaged as a result. But communities where good-enough
marriages are common have better outcomes for children, women and men than do
communities suffering from high rates of divorce, unmarried childbearing and
high-conflict or violent marriages.”
The recent report – entitled “Why Marriage Matters”
– was sponsored by several groups, including the Institute for American
Values, a non-partisan think tank. A press release accompanying it noted, “This
is the first time leading family scholars have issued a definitive joint report
… about the consequences of marriage and its absence.”
The press release pointed out that the proportion of children
who do not live with their own two parents has risen from 19.4 percent in 1960
to 42.3 percent in recent years.
“For several decades, the impact of this dramatic change
in family structure has been the subject of vigorous debate among scholars,”
the press release stated.
“No longer. These (released) findings are now widely agreed
upon.”
Overall, authors of the recent report offer numerous key findings.
Among them:
Marriage increases the likelihood that fathers have
good relationships with their children
“Mothers as well as fathers are affected by the absence
of marriage,” the recently-released study states. “Single mothers
on average report more conflict with and less monitoring of their children than
do married mothers. … But childrens relationships with their fathers
are at even greater risk. Sixty-five percent of young adults whose parents divorced
had poor relationships with their fathers (compared to 29 percent from non-divorced
families).”
Cohabitation is not the functional equivalent of
marriage
“As a group, cohabitors in the United States more closely
resemble singles than married people,” the report explains. “Children
with cohabiting parents have outcomes more similar to the children living with
single (or remarried) parents. … Couples who live together also, on average,
report relationships of lower quality than do married couples – with cohabitors
reporting more conflict, more violence and lower levels of satisfaction and
commitment.”
Growing up outside an intact marriage increases
the likelihood that children will themselves divorce or become unwed parents
“Children whose parents divorce or fail to marry are more
likely to become young unwed parents, to divorce themselves and to have unhappy
marriages and/or relationships,” researchers note. “Daughters raised
outside of intact marriages are approximately three times more likely to end
up young, unwed mothers than are children whose parents married and stayed married.
Parental divorce approximately doubles the odds that adult children will also
divorce.”
Divorce and unmarried childbearing increase poverty
for both children and mothers
“The effects of family structure on poverty remain powerful,
…” the report notes. “Changes in family structure are an important
cause of new entries into poverty … . Child poverty rates are very high primarily
because of the growth of single-parent families. When parents fail to marry
and stay married, children are more likely to experience deep and persistent
poverty, even after controlling for race and family background.”
Married couples seem to build more wealth on average
than singles or cohabiting couples
“The economic advantages of marriage stem from more than
just access to two incomes,” the researchers explain. “Marriage partners
appear to build more wealth for some of the same reasons that partnerships in
general are economically efficient.”
Married men earn more money than do single men with
similar education and job histories
“A large body of research, both in the United States and
other developed countries, finds that married men earn between 10 and 40 percent
more than do single men with similar education and job histories. … The causes
are not entirely understood, but married men appear to have greater work commitment,
lower quit rates and healthier and more stable personal routines (including
sleep, diet and alcohol consumption).”
Parental divorce (or failure to marry) appears to
increase childrens risk of school failure
“Children of divorced or unwed parents have lower grades
and other measures of academic achievement, are more likely to be held back
and are more likely to drop out of high school,” the study notes.
“Children whose parents divorce end up with significantly
lower levels of education than do children in single-mother families created
by the death of the father. Children whose parents remarry do no better, on
average, than do children who live with single mothers.”
Children who live with their own two married parents
enjoy better physical health, on average, than do children in other family forms
“Longitudinal research suggests that parental divorce
increases the incidence of health problems in children,” the study notes.
“The health advantages of married homes remain, even after taking socioeconomic
status into account. The health disadvantages associated with being raised outside
of intact marriages persist into adulthood.”
Marriage is associated with reduced rates of alcohol
and substance abuse for both adults and teenagers
“Young adults who marry tend to reduce their rates of
alcohol consumption and illegal drug use,” the study notes. “Children
whose parents marry and stay married also have lower rates of substance abuse,
even after controlling for family background.”
Married people, especially married men, have longer
life expectancies than do otherwise similar singles
“In most developed countries, middle-aged single, divorced,
or widowed men are about twice as likely to die as married men, and non-married
women face risks about one and a half times as great as those faced by married
women,” the study notes.
Marriage is associated with better health and lower
rates of injury, illness and disability for both men and women
“Married people appear to manage illness better, monitor
each others health, have higher incomes and wealth and adopt healthier
lifestyles than do otherwise similar singles,” the researchers explain.
Children whose parents divorce have higher rates
of psychological distress and mental illness
“Divorce typically causes children considerable emotional
distress and increases the risk of serious mental illness,” the study details.
“These mental health risks do not dissipate soon after the divorce. Instead,
children of divorce remain at higher risk for depression and other mental illness,
in part because of reduced education attainment, increased risk of divorce,
marital problems and economic hardship.”
Divorce appears significantly to increase the risk
of suicide
“Divorced men and women are more than twice as likely
as their married counterparts to attempt suicide, …” the marriage report
notes. “In the last half-century, suicide rates among teens and young adults
have tripled. The single most important explanatory variable, according
to one new study, is the increased share of youths living in homes with
a divorced parent.”
Boys raised in single-parent families are more likely
to engage in delinquent and criminal behavior
“Teens in one-parent families are on average less attached
to their parents opinions and more attached to their peer groups. Combined
with lower levels of parental supervision, these attitudes appear to set the
stage for delinquent behavior,” the researchers say, noting boys raised
in single-parent homes are about twice as likely as other boys to be incarcerated
by their early 30s.
Married women appear to have a lower risk of experiencing
domestic violence than do cohabiting or dating women
“While young women must recognize that marriage is not
a good strategy for reforming violent men, … research shows that being unmarried,
and especially living with a man outside of marriage, is associated with an
increased risk of domestic abuse, …” the recent study explains. “(Studies
show) cohabitors engage in more violence than do spouses.”
A child who is not living with his or her own two
married parents is at greater risk of child abuse
“Children living with single mothers, stepfathers or mothers
boyfriends are more likely to become victims of child abuse,” the study
emphasizes. “Children living in single-mother homes have increased rates
of death from intentional injuries. (Researchers) report, Living with
a stepparent has turned out to be the most powerful predictor of severe child
abuse yet.”
(The “Why Marriage Matters” report may be ordered at www.americanvalues.org)