Here is an examination of the many benefits of marriage. The purpose is to highlight and encourage the younger generations to gain a positive view of marriage and change this adverse trend toward marriage.
Popular culture has skewed our concept of marriage, and many young people do not see its value or advantages and why it has governed societies well for many a millennial.
Let’s examine some of the many benefits, including physical-health benefits, lower mortality rates, better mental health and happiness, economic well-being, benefits to the children who are living in a home with two biologically married adults, social solid integration and support, and healthy behaviors and lifestyles.
Married people are less likely to suffer from long-term illness or disability. Lower mortality rates have been identified, and married people have better survival rates for serious diseases, such as cancer.
Longitudinal data have found that staying married to the same person is associated with better mental health and happiness. There is evidence of improvements in emotional well-being following marriage, especially if we desire to grow emotionally. Marriage allows one to be open about your challenges, experiences, and complicated feelings. Marriage affords a long-term committed relationship that can help heal past traumas and can significantly impact personal growth.
Next, there is evidence that marriage fosters economic well-being. A large body of literature documents that married men earn higher wages than their single counterparts.
Other research shows that married people have higher family incomes than non-married people. Married people, on average, have higher levels of wealth and assets.
Married couples have more significant financial resources, especially women. The long-term horizon implied by marriage gives spouses the ability to neglect some skills and focus on the development of others.
Additional benefits include the welfare of children. Children raised by their married parents do better across a wide range of outcomes, such as lower infant mortality rates and reduced dropout rates.
Children raised by married parents complete more years of schooling, are less likely to be idle as adults and are less likely to have a child as an unmarried teenager.
Another advantage includes the social integration and the support marriage provides, which improves mental and physical health. Marriage affords emotional support regularly, decreasing depression, anxiety, and other psychological problems.
Research asserts that having a spouse can improve physical health directly by aiding early detection and treatment and providing speedier recovery from illness. In addition to close support from the spouse, marriage connects people to other individuals of other social groups (i.e., in-laws) and other social institutions.
A more comprehensive social network has additional positive effects on both spouses and their children. Married couples invest in the relationship, resulting in higher levels of relationship quality. This pathway leads to higher emotional satisfaction with sex, generally reported by married individuals.
Finally, marriage has a regulative function to promote healthy behaviors and lifestyles. Married individuals have someone who closely monitors their health-related conduct; marriage fosters self-regulation and internalization of norms for healthful behavior. Marriage contributes to an enhanced sense of meaning and purpose, which inhibits destructive activities and conduct.
Trends in marriage are essential to how communities live and thrive. They are associated with significant effects on the socialization of the next generation. Regardless of the outcome that is being examined, for example, the quality of the mother-infant relationship.The family structure that produces the best outcomes for children, on average, are two biological parents who remain married.
We need to change this trend against marriage and educate the younger population on the values and advantages of marriage, one of the most critical decisions you will make in your lifetime and one that can foster a meaningful and purposeful adulthood and life.
Dr. Maria Perez is a Lynn resident currently working as an adjunct professor in the Graduate of Education Program at Gordon College.
