As a societal institution, marriage provides benefits not only to society as a whole, but also to the people that make up households that include marriage. Social scientists and family experts largely agree that there are many reasons that marriage helps societies, families, and individuals stay stronger and healthier.
Here are a ten of the many reasons marriage is highly valued (in no particular order):
1. Within marriages, there is generally less domestic violence toward women and children alike than there is in single parent or cohabitating households.
2. Children with married parents are not only less likely to be the victims of violent crimes, but are also less likely to commit crimes or to be incarcerated (the latter applies especially to boys).
3. Children of married parents are more likely to graduate from college and to acquire better jobs.
4. Married men tend to be more ambitious, earning more than their single counterparts do even when other life circumstances (education, experience, etc.) are very similar.
5. Married men are less likely to engage in reckless behaviors, which may be attributed to the facts that they have a wife and/or children who depend on them and care for them. This may be one of the reasons for the next entry…
6. Married men enjoy greater life expectancy than single men do.
7. Mothers whom are married tend to suffer from depression less often than single or cohabitating mothers do.
8. It is widely accepted that married adults, both men and women, tend to be healthier than their single, cohabitating, or divorced counterparts are, and that children of married parents enjoy better health on average. This is true even in less advantaged families.
9. Children whom grow up with married parents are more likely to stay married themselves, while children of divorced parents are nearly twice as likely to divorce.
10. Marriage may help decrease poverty, especially in regard to women and children. A high rate of divorced women, other single parents, and their children live in poverty.