BENEFITS OF MARRIAGE

Given the preponderance of divorce in developed nations, most people realize that a Cinderella wedding does not guarantee living happily ever after. Even so, most couples in the world get married, and many same-sex couples are fighting for the right to get married. For some, marriage is a sacred vow that must be enacted before having sex and children. For many others, it is a voluntary choice, entered into regardless of religious significance. In short, most people want to get married. With the well-known fact that many marriages do not last, one might wonder why people want to get married. Are there real benefits to marriage beyond those imagined through rose-colored glasses? This entry addresses this question. To answer it, the entry will also address two other questions. First, to whom do these benefits go? It can be argued that marriage benefits culture, society, the family, the couple, and the individual. Second, do benefits accrue differently for men and women? Research has shown that, at the individual level, marriage bestows benefits differently to men and women.

All legal marriages impart legal benefits, but other, less visible and direct benefits vary from couple to couple. The preponderance of research demonstrates that the most of the social, physiological, and psychological benefits of marriage accrue to those couples whose marriages are going well.

Culture and Society

It has been argued that marriage provides the best type of family structure within which to raise nurture, and socialize children to become productive members of society. On the practical side, spouses combining two incomes can, more easily than single parents, maintain a household and raise children. In addition, families are one way in which cultural and religious traditions are transmitted to the young. Being married also gives couples a connection to their community, and are recognized as spouses bound by law. Although our society tolerates and sometimes accepts cohabitation, such an arrangement is not given legal rights or as much legitimacy as marriage. More often, cohabitation is seen as a step toward the goal of getting married.

Family

Marriage creates a bond between one person and his or her spouse’s family. Such a connection may be detrimental when, for example, in-laws interfere with the marital relationship or the socialization and discipline of children. However, the benefits that accrue when families are supportive are clear. The family group to which a couple belongs automatically becomes larger when  marry. The spouses are seen as family, and as such, have access to the resources of two families instead of one. Older family members can provide teaching functions for the new couple. Couple that have children also benefit from interactions with other family members, learning to socialize and become members of a larger family unit, not to mention the tangible benefits that other family members can provide.

Couple

Married couples have legal benefits that unmarried couples generally do not have. Legally, a spouse has access to the health insurance of the other and is allowed to make decisions for an ill partner when he or she is unable to make those decisions independently. In many nations, a spouse is also entitled to the retirement benefits of the deceased spouse, and married couples are given tax benefits. Married couples are also seen as more desirable parents to adopt children. In addition, in a court of law, spouses are not required to testify against each other. These benefits of marriage are not given to unmarried cohabiting couples. Although marriage provides many other benefits, the legal benefits, in large part, are those that same-sex couples are fighting for.

There are other, less tangible benefits to marriage. Marriage gives couples a way to demonstrate their commitment to each other publicly. Being married bestows a sense of legitimacy, recognition as a couple, and inclusion into the larger society, which are other reasons that some same-sex couples want the right to marry.

Although the benefits of raising and nurturing children can far outweigh the costs, the changes children bring a couple’s life are daunting at first. Day-to-day routines must change drastically to adjust to a new baby who is dependent on parents for every aspect of living. The joys of raising children, as well as the strains, can be shared by spouses, and may expand their “couple identity” as they become parents. However, if a marriage is troubled, having children usually does not solve problems. Research indicates that couples’ interaction patterns generally do not change after having children. For example, spouses who engage in destructive patterns of interaction before having children continue to behave in destructive ways after having children. Research also shows that for most marriages, marital quality declines after having children, but stability increases. This downturn in marital quality occurs especially in younger couples who have children early in marriage. Thus, having children can be a double-edged sword for many couples.

Marriage can also be a source of social support in the sense that spouses help each other in times of need. Marital support is exemplified by having someone to confide in when upset, being taken care of when ill, and being valued as an individual. Marital support engenders the sense that one is not alone when facing stressful situations. One person’s problems become our problems and can be faced together, fostering the attitude of “you and me against the world.” Thus, problems may not seem as bad when someone can be counted on to help and reassure.

Individual Well-Being

U.S. society is considered to be considered to be collective societies. Therefore, it is not surprising that many of the benefits of marriage in Western society accrue to the individual. Individuals who are married are better off in many ways — physically and psychologically — than are people who are not married.

Physical Health

In Western society, married people are healthier than unmarried people. There are two major hypotheses for the health advantage of marriage. The first is selection. That is, healthier people choose (are selected or self-select) to be married. People who choose to be married often have more financial resources, less stress, more social support, and better health habits than do those who choose to be single. These advantages, at first glance, are not benefits to the individual because they exist before marriage. However, when two people with these same advantages combine resources, marriage can enhance their existing healthy lifestyle.

The second hypothesis for the health advantage of marriage is protection from ill health. Protection (as opposed to selection) is a benefit of marriage because it accrues after marriage. Interestingly, the health advantage after marriage is stronger for men than for women. One reason married men are healthier than unmarried men is that women are more likely than men to attempt to influence their partner’s health-related behaviors (such as taking medication, visiting doctors, eating healthy foods). As such, wives are more likely than husbands to urge their spouses to seek medical help and even make their appointments with physicians. Further, men are more likely to depend on their wives for social support, whereas women tend to be more integrated into socially supportive networks of friends and family. Thus, in addition to having someone to monitor their health behaviors, men also gain a health benefit by being married to more socially integrated wives. Being integrated into social networks is also a factor that predicts better health.

For men, marital status seems to bestow health benefits upon the married man regardless of how satisfying the marriage is. On the other hand, married women are healthier than single women only when the marriage is satisfying. In other words, unhappy marriages are a greater risk factor for wives than for husbands. There are two individualistic compared with many Asian countries that are plausible, but not yet empirically established, explanations for the close tie between women’s health and the quality of their marriages. Women’s self-concept is intertwined with her relationships, so a poor-quality marriage may reflect poorly on the women themselves. Second, because women are also more likely to monitor others’ health behaviors in addition to their relationships, they may ignore their own psychological and physiological signs of stress. Thus, women in unhappy marriages are at the same risk of ill health as single women are, and at greater risk of health problems than married men.

In response to acute stressors in laboratory settings (for example, being harassed, public speaking), however, men generally show greater increases in physiological indicators of stress than women do. Although men are affected more acutely by general stressors, research indicates that men’s physiological responses to acute stressors tend to be short-lived and dissipate quickly. Conversely, physiological indicators of stress show that women, compared with men, react more strongly to discussions of marital problems. For women, the physiological reactions to the stress of marital conflict appear to last longer and have a longer-term effect than men’s reactions do.

As implied earlier, ignoring their own physiological reactions to stress can lead to long-term health problems for women. If women are unaware of their physiological stress, they are unable to reduce it. This phenomenon underscores the point that health benefits of marriage accrue to women only when the marriage is satisfying. Such benefits are more likely to accrue to men regardless of the quality of their marriages.

Psychological Health

Compared with people who are unmarried, married people are also better off in their psychological well-being. That is, married individuals are happier and less depressed. On the one hand, some evidence indicates that happier and less depressed people may be more likely than are unhappy and depressed people to get married. On the other hand, some studies suggest that this greater psychological well-being is the result of the marital relationship rather than the fact that happier people are more likely to marry. It is likely that both selection and protection play a part in spouses’ psychological well-being.

These psychological benefits of marriage have been identified from large research studies comparing survey data from unmarried and married individuals who answered survey questions about life in general. The findings, as such, did not include married participants’ own assessment of the benefits of marriage. However, some researchers, in turn, wanted to know whether the individuals themselves were aware of the benefits of being married. To understand whether individuals are aware of the beneficial nature of marriage, Denise Previti and Paul Amato asked a representative sample of married people in the United States open-ended questions about what keeps their marriage together. The most popular answers by far concerned the beneficial or rewarding aspects of marriages (e.g., love) rather than the costs of leaving (e.g., financial interdependence). The next most frequent rewarding aspect of marriage was friendship or companionship. Thus, the rewards most often mentioned (love and friendship) were those that emphasize feelings of connectedness and sharing life with another person.

In a sense, this research indicates that spouses know what their marriage provides for them. They see what marital support can do. Perceiving that such support is available has been shown to benefit individual’s mental health in addition to their marital satisfaction. As such, trusting that someone will “be there” in times of trouble fosters a sense of personal security and well-being. People who were insecure in relationships can become more secure over time when they are in a trusting committed relationship. When marital support is consistent, insecure wives, especially during the transition to parenthood, become more secure.

Marriage provides people with someone to count on during times of trouble and provides someone to listen and understand when things go well. Researchers have found that spouses who share day-to-day positive events with each other feel positive emotions and are more satisfied with their relationships. Again, these benefits accrue only to marriages that are satisfying. Dissatisfied spouses do not enjoy these benefits and are likely to suffer significant costs.

By Linda K. Acitelli in "Encyclopedia of Human Relationship", edited by Harry T. Reis and Susan Sprecher, SAGE Publications, USA, 2009, excerpts p.1043-1045 (v.II). Adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.

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