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- May 31, 2011
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Get marriage and live longer! Secular research claims marriage is good for your health.
by Mark Davies
Although marriage is under attack in many quarters of society today, the overwhelming majority of secular research shows that traditional marriage is more beneficial than any other living arrangement. The following is a brief overview of some of the main themes emerging from widespread research.
Single people struggle more with loneliness, depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, lower self-mastery and are at much greater risk of suicide
by Mark Davies
Although marriage is under attack in many quarters of society today, the overwhelming majority of secular research shows that traditional marriage is more beneficial than any other living arrangement. The following is a brief overview of some of the main themes emerging from widespread research.
Single people struggle more with loneliness, depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, lower self-mastery and are at much greater risk of suicide
- Marriage is good for your physical health: Research shows that unmarried individuals are far more likely to die from causes including cancer, heart disease, stroke, accidents and suicide. "Compared to married people, the non-married have higher rates of early mortality: about 50% higher among women and 250% among men," says a research review by Catherine Ross (Journal of Marriage and Family, 1990). Married women and men were 30% more likely to rate their health as excellent or very good than their same-age single counterparts (says Linda Waite in The Case for Marriage, Random House, 2000). The unmistakable conclusion gleaned from the research is that married couples enjoy longer and healthier lives.
- Marriage is good for your mental health: Marital status is one of the strongest predictors of happiness, according to a 10-year survey of 14,000 adults by James Davis (Social Indicators Research, 1984). Happiness and mental health are directly attributable to being married, and it's not just that happy people happen to be married, according to Nadine Marks and James Lambert (Journal of Family Issues, 1998). Widespread research has consistently reported that single people struggle more with loneliness, depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, lower self-mastery and are at much greater risk of suicide (American Journal of Public Health, 1988).
- Marriage is good for your sex life: A popular myth is that nothing kills sexual satisfaction better than marriage. Research shows just the opposite. Married individuals have more sex than their single counterparts and report greater levels of sexual satisfaction, concluded Edward Laumann after interviewing 3,500 American adults (The Social Organization of Sexuality, Univ. of Chicago Press, 1994). Individuals who are reporting the highest levels of sexual satisfaction are married and in their 50s-60s, reports leading sexologist David Schnarch. His conclusion is that sexual fulfillment is dependent upon the kind of emotional intimacy found in committed stable relationships (Constructing the Sexual Crucible, Norton, 1991).
- Marriage provides more safety and stability: People in common-law relationships are at higher levels of risk to experience emotional, physical and sexual abuse, according to a research survey by Canadian sociologists Larsen, Goltz and Monroe (Families in Canada, Prentice Hall, 2000). Statistics Canada concurs: "The risk of being a victim of spousal violence was also much higher for women and men living in common-law unions. About 4% of those living in a common-law union reported spousal violence during the 12 months before the survey, compared with 1% of those who were married" (Family Violence 1999). Furthermore, cohabitation does not lead to greater marital stability, but has the opposite effect. "Starting conjugal life in a common-law relationship, as opposed to a marriage, sharply increases the probability of this first union ending in separation. And whether the common-law partners eventually marry or not makes little difference: the risk of separation is just as high," according to Celine Le Bourdais and her colleagues (Canadian Social Trends, Spring 2000).
- Marriage is good for the welfare of children: No one has done more on studying the effects of divorce on children than clinical psychologist Judith Wallerstein. She began her research in the 1960s fully expecting to find that divorce would have a positive effect on children. She found just the opposite. After three decades of research she is even more convinced of how important marriage is to the well-being of a child. Based on her research she believes that even when marriages are bad, they have a more positive effect on children than divorce does (The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce, Hyperion Books, 2000). Widespread research overwhelmingly suggests that children who are raised by two parents in a committed marriage fare far better in academic ability, social adjustment, physical and mental health and have more stable marriages themselves than their peers who come from broken homes. Having a strong marriage is truly the most important factor in raising happy, well-adjusted children (as is pointed out in chap. 7 of Miles Corak [ed.], Labour Markets, Social Institutions and the Future of Canada's Children, Statistics Canada, 1998).
