Celebrating the benefits of marriage

Valentine’s Day is not just for married couples, but it certainly is one of the most likely days to celebrate the benefits of marriage.

After completing some in-depth studies on the subject, researchers have come to the expert conclusion that Mark Twain was right when he said, “To get the full value of joy, you must have someone to divide it with.”

Two sociology professors from the University of Chicago co-wrote a study, “The Benefits from Marriage and Religion in the United States: A Comparative Analysis,” documenting their findings that married couples are healthier, wealthier and have a better sex life:

» Married people are less likely than unmarried people to suffer from long-term illness or disability, and they have better survival rates for some illnesses. They have fewer physical problems and a lower risk of death from various causes, especially those with a behavioral component; the health benefits of marriage are generally larger for men.

» Studies have found that getting married (and staying married to the same person) is associated with better mental health outcomes. These studies present evidence of improvements in emotional well-being following marriage, and declines in mental health following the end of a union.

» Marriage is also associated with greater overall happiness. The likelihood that a person would report being happy with life in general is substantially higher among those who are currently married than among those who have never been married or have been previously married; the magnitude of the gap has remained fairly stable over the past 35 years and is similar for men and women.

» A large body of research literature documents that married men earn higher wages than their single counterparts. This differential, known as the “marriage premium,” is sizable. Research also shows that married people have higher family income than the non married, with the gap between the family income of married and single women being wider than that between married and single men. In addition, married people on average have higher levels of wealth and assets.

» Levels of emotional and physical satisfaction with sex are highest for married people.

Another study which was written for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services titled, “The Effects of Marriage on Health: A Synthesis of Recent Research Evidence,” repeated those health and wealth conclusions and added a few more regarding the impact of marriage on substance abuse:

» For both men and women, the frequency of binge drinking declines substantially during the 24-month window just before and just after first marriage. For men, research suggests a drop in the likelihood of engaging in binge drinking around the time of marriage of about 50 percent. For women, their results suggest a drop of about 25 percent.

» In addition, entry into first marriage is associated not only with a drop in binge drinking but also with an overall decline in alcohol consumption and marijuana use.

The HHS study did note, though, a few well-known drawbacks and negative health effects from marriage. After marriage, men tend to exercise substantially less, and both men and women tend to gain weight.

When it is all said and done, maybe the best way of summing up the most valuable benefit of a long-term, committed marriage is what Ann Meara of the husband-wife comedy team Stiller and Meara told a New York Times reporter about her 30-plus year marriage, “Was it love at first sight? It wasn’t then — but it sure is now.”

Sharman’s column runs every Tuesday. He lives in Madison.