While the institution of marriage may have lost some of its appeal to
young adults, research indicates that Marriage provides numerous benefits:
1.
Emotional/ Physical Health- Married couples have better emotional
and physical health, longer lives, more wealth, and higher earnings than single
people do.7
2.
Emotional / Physical Satisfaction- Compared to all sexually active people, faithfully married
couples experience the most physical pleasure and emotional satisfaction with
their sex lives.8
3.
Stable Mental Health- Married people have the lowest rates of alcoholism, depression,
and mental disorders when compared to unmarried, divorced, and separated
individuals.9
4.
Lower Suicide Rate - Married individuals are the least likely to commit suicide,
while divorced people have the highest risk of committing suicide.10
5.
Manage Stress Well - Married people can handle stressful situations better than
their unmarried counterparts and they are the least likely to be lonely, when
compared to the never married, divorced, widowed, and separated.11
6.
Relationship Commitment - In a study comparing married and
cohabiting couples, married people reported higher levels of commitment and
happiness in their relationship and better relationships with their parents
than cohabiting couples.12
7.
Female Well-Being - A study of mothers who were married,
never-married, divorced or remarried found that first-time married mothers
reported the highest levels of general well-being and the lowest levels of
depression.13
8.
Personal Happiness - A study on marital status and happiness found that married men
and women are 3.4 times more likely to be happy than cohabiting couples.14