A Report from Family Scholars Why Marriage Matters, Second Edition
Twenty-Six Conclusions from the Social Sciences Institute for American Values T HIS STATEMENT comes from a team of family scholars chaired by W. Bradford Wilcox of the University of Virginia, William
Doherty of the University of Minnesota, Norval Glenn of the University of Texas, and Linda Waite of the University of Chicago. The
project is sponsored by the Institute for American Values. The Institute
is grateful to Arthur E. Rasmussen for helping to initiate the project, to
Maggie Gallagher for research and editorial assistance on the first edition,
to the National Fatherhood Initiative for supporting the second edition,
and to the Institute’s financial contributors for their generous support. On the cover: Woman Writing List That © 2005, Institute for American Values. Binds Two Hearts by Bonnie Timmons. No reproduction of the materials con- © Bonnie Timmons/The Image Bank/ tained herein is permitted without the Getty Images. written permission of the Institute for
American Values. Layout by Josephine Tramontano, Institute for American Values. First edition published 2002. Second edition 2005. ISBN #978-1-931764-10-7
Institute for American Values
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Website: www.americanvalues.org
Email: info@americanvalues.org Table of Contents
The Authors............................................................................................. 4
Introduction............................................................................................. 5
The Twenty-Six Conclusions: A Snapshot.............................................. 10
The Twenty-Six Conclusions.................................................................. 12
Family................................................................................................ 12
Economics......................................................................................... 19
Physical Health and Longevity......................................................... 23
Mental Health and Emotional Well-Being........................................ 27
Crime and Domestic Violence.......................................................... 29
Conclusion............................................................................................... 32
Endnotes.................................................................................................. 34 The Authors
W. Bradford Wilcox, University of Virginia
William J. Doherty, University of Minnesota
Helen Fisher, Rutgers University
William A. Galston, University of Maryland
Norval D. Glenn, University of Texas at Austin
John Gottman, University of Washington (Emeritus)
Robert Lerman, American University
Annette Mahoney, Bowling Green State University
Barbara Markey, Creighton University
Howard J. Markman, University of Denver
Steven Nock, University of Virginia
David Popenoe, Rutgers University
Gloria G. Rodriguez, AVANCE, Inc.
Scott M. Stanley, University of Denver
Linda J. Waite, University of Chicago
Judith Wallerstein, University of California at Berkeley (Emerita) Page 4 Why Marriage Matters Twenty-Six Conclusions from the Social Sciences
Introduction I communities in the United States, especially poor
and minority ones, marriage is in retreat. The statistics tell part of the
story. In 1960, 5 percent of children were born outside of wedlock.
Today, 34 percent of children are born outside of wedlock. In 1960,
more than 67 percent of adults were married. Today, fewer than 56 percent of adults are married. As a consequence, American children are
much less likely to spend their entire childhood in an intact, married
family than they were 50 years ago. Likewise, men and women are less
likely than they were 50 years ago to get married as a young adult and
stay married. The bottom line is this: The institution of marriage has less
of a hold over American men, women, and children than it did earlier
in the last century.
N ALL TOO MANY These trends are even more dramatic in minority and lower income
communities. In 2002, 68 percent of African American births and 44
percent of Latino births were out of wedlock, compared to 29 percent
of white births. Similarly, although only about 5 percent of collegeeducated mothers have children out of wedlock, approximately 25
percent of mothers without a high school degree have children outside
marriage.1 Most of the women in the latter group hail from low-income
families. African Americans and men and women without college
degrees are also significantly more likely to divorce than their Anglo
college-educated peers.2
The changes that have swept over American families in the last two
generations have inspired a large body of social scientific research and
a growing number of marriage education programs aimed at better
preparing couples for marriage and better equipping couples with the
knowledge, values, and skills required for successful marriage in
today’s world. This report, the second edition of Why Marriage
Matters, is an attempt to summarize the research into a succinct form Page 5 useful to Americans on all sides of ongoing family debates — to report
what we know about the importance of marriage for our families and
for our society.
What does the social science tell us? In addition to reviewing research
on family topics covered in the first edition of the report, this report
highlights five new themes in marriage-related research. Five New Themes 1. Even though marriage has lost ground in minority communities
in recent years, marriage has not lost its value in these communities. This report shows that African Americans and Latinos
benefit from marriage in much the same way that Anglos benefit
from marriage. We also present evidence that marriage matters in
countries, such as Sweden, that have markedly different approaches
to public policy, social welfare, and religion than does the United
States. In other words, marriage is a multicultural institution.
2. An emerging line of research indicates that marriage benefits
poor Americans, and Americans from disadvantaged backgrounds, even though these Americans are now less likely to
get and stay married. Among other findings, this report shows that
women from disadvantaged backgrounds who marry and stay married are much less likely to suffer poverty or other material hardship
compared to their peers who do not marry.
3. Marriage seems to be particularly important in civilizing men,
turning their attention away from dangerous, antisocial, or
self-centered activities and towards the needs of a family.
Married men drink less, fight less, and are less likely to engage in
criminal activity than their single peers. Married husbands and
fathers are significantly more involved and affectionate with their
wives and children than men in cohabiting relationships (with and
without children). The norms, status rewards, and social support
offered to men by marriage all combine to help men walk down
the path to adult responsibility. Page 6 4. Beyond its well-known contributions to adult health, marriage
influences the biological functioning of adults and children in
ways that can have important social consequences. For instance,
marriage appears to drive down testosterone in men, with clear
consequences for their propensity to aggression. Girls who grow up
in non-intact families — especially girls who are exposed to unrelated
males in their homes — are more likely to experience premature
sexual development and, consequently, are more likely to have a
teenage pregnancy. Thus, marriage, or the lack thereof, appears to
have important biosocial consequences for men, women, and children.
5. We find that the relationship quality of intimate partners is
related both to their marital status and, for married adults, to
the degree to which these partners are normatively committed
to marriage. So, claims that love, not marriage, are crucial to a
happy family life do not hold up. Marriage matters even or especially
when it comes to fostering high-quality intimate relationships.
In summarizing marriage-related findings, we acknowledge that social
science is better equipped to document whether certain social facts are
true than to say why they are true. We can assert more definitively that
marriage is associated with powerful social goods than that marriage is
the sole or main cause of these goods. A Word about Selection Effects Good research seeks to tease out “selection effects,” or the pre-existing
differences between individuals who marry, become unwed parents, or
divorce. Does divorce cause poverty, for example, or is it simply that
poor people are more likely to divorce? Good social science attempts to
distinguish between causal relationships and mere correlations in a variety
of ways. The studies cited here are for the most part based on large,
nationally representative samples that control for race, education,
income, and other confounding factors. In many, but not all cases, social
scientists have been able to use longitudinal data to track individuals as
they marry, divorce, or stay single, increasing our confidence that marriage itself matters. Where the evidence is, in our view, overwhelming Page 7 that marriage causes increases in well-being, we say so. Where the
causal pathways are not as well understood, we are more cautious.
We recognize that, absent random assignment to marriage, divorce, or
single parenting, social scientists must always acknowledge the possibility that other factors are influencing outcomes. Reasonable scholars
may and do disagree on the existence and extent of such selection
effects and the extent to which marriage is causally related to the better
social outcomes reported here.
Nevertheless, scholarship is getting better in addressing selection effects.
For instance, in this report we summarize two divorce studies that follow
identical and non-identical adult twins in Australia to see to what extent
the effects of divorce on their children are genetic and to what extent
the effects of divorce on their children seem to be a consequence of
divorce itself. Methodological innovations like these, as well as complex
analyses using econometric models, are affording us greater confidence
that family structure exercises a causal influence for some outcomes.
Of course individual circumstances vary.3 While divorce is associated
with increased risks of serious psychological and social problems for
children, for example, about 75 percent of children of divorce do not
suffer such problems (compared to approximately 90 percent of children
from intact families).4 While marriage is a social good, not all marriages
are equal. Research does not generally support the idea that remarriage
is better for children than living with a single mother.5 Unhappy
marriages do not have the same benefits as the average marriage.6
Divorce or separation provides an important escape hatch for children
and adults in violent or high-conflict marriages. Families, communities,
and policy makers interested in distributing the benefits of marriage
more equally must do more than merely discourage legal divorce.
Despite its inherent limitations, good social science is a better guide to
social policy than uninformed opinion or prejudice. The public and
policy makers deserve to hear what research suggests about the consequences of marriage and its absence for children and adults. This report
represents our best judgment of what the current social science evidence
reveals about the importance of marriage in our social system. Page 8 Fundamental Conclusions Here are our three fundamental conclusions:
1. Marriage is an important social good, associated with an impressively broad array of positive outcomes for children and adults alike.
2. Marriage is an important public good, associated with a range of
economic, health, educational, and safety benefits that help local,
state, and federal governments serve the common good.
3. The benefits of marriage extend to poor and minority communities, despite the fact that marriage is particularly fragile in these
communities. F and processes are of course only one factor
contributing to child and social well-being. Our discussion here is
not meant to minimize the importance of other social and economic factors, such as poverty, child support, unemployment, teenage
childbearing, neighborhood safety, or the quality of education for both
parents and children. Marriage is not a panacea for all of our social ills.
For instance, when it comes to child well-being, research suggests that
family structure is a better predictor of children’s psychological and
social welfare, whereas poverty is a better predictor of children’s educational attainment.7
AMILY STRUCTURE But whether American society and, indeed, the world, succeeds or fails
in building a healthy marriage culture is clearly a matter of legitimate
public concern. In particular, marriage is an issue of paramount importance if we wish to help the most vulnerable members of our society:
the poor, minorities, and children. Page 9 The Twenty-Six Conclusions: A Snapshot Family 1.
2.
3.
4.
5. 6. Marriage increases the likelihood that fathers and mothers have
good relationships with their children.
Cohabitation is not the functional equivalent of marriage.
Growing up outside an intact marriage increases the likelihood
that children will themselves divorce or become unwed parents.
Marriage is a virtually universal human institution.
Marriage, and a normative commitment to marriage, foster highquality relationships between adults, as well as between parents
and children.
Marriage has important biosocial consequences for adults and
children. Economics 7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13. Page 10 Divorce and unmarried childbearing increase poverty for both
children and mothers.
Married couples seem to build more wealth on average than
singles or cohabiting couples.
Marriage reduces poverty and material hardship for disadvantaged women and their children.
Minorities benefit economically from marriage.
Married men earn more money than do single men with similar
education and job histories.
Parental divorce (or failure to marry) appears to increase children’s risk of school failure.
Parental divorce reduces the likelihood that children will graduate from college and achieve high-status jobs. Physical Health and Longevity 14. Children who live with their own two married parents enjoy
better physical health, on average, than do children in other
family forms.
15. Parental marriage is associated with a sharply lower risk of
infant mortality.
16. Marriage is associated with reduced rates of alcohol and substance abuse for both adults and teens.
17. Married people, especially married men, have longer life expectancies than do otherwise similar singles.
18. Marriage is associated with better health and lower rates of
injury, illness, and disability for both men and women.
19. Marriage seems to be associated with better health among
minorities and the poor. Mental Health and Emotional Well-Being 20. Children whose parents divorce have higher rates of psychological distress and mental illness.
21. Divorce appears to increase significantly the risk of suicide.
22. Married mothers have lower rates of depression than do single
or cohabiting mothers.
23. Boys raised in single-parent families are more likely to engage
in delinquent and criminal behavior.
24. Marriage appears to reduce the risk that adults will be either
perpetrators or victims of crime.
25. Married women appear to have a lower risk of experiencing
domestic violence than do cohabiting or dating women.
26. A child who is not living with his or her own two married
parents is at greater risk for child abuse. Page 11 The Twenty-Six Conclusions Family
1. Marriage increases the likelihood that fathers and mothers
have good relationships with their children. Mothers as well as fathers are affected by the absence of marriage.
Single mothers on average report more conflict with and less monitoring
of their children than do married mothers.8 As adults, children from
intact marriages report being closer to their mothers on average than do
children of divorce.9 In one nationally representative study, 30 percent
of young adults whose parents divorced reported poor relationships
with their mothers, compared to 16 percent of children whose parents
stayed married.10
But children’s relationships with their fathers depend even more on
marriage than do children’s relationships with their mothers. Sixty-five
percent of young adults whose parents divorced had poor relationships
with their fathers (compared to 29 percent from nondivorced families).11
On average, children whose parents divorce or never marry see their
fathers less frequently12 and have less affectionate relationships with
their fathers13 than do children whose parents get and stay married.
Studies of children of divorce suggest that losing contact with their
fathers in the wake of a divorce is one of the most painful consequences
of divorce.14 Divorce appears to have an even greater negative effect on
relationships between fathers and their children than remaining in an
unhappy marriage.15 Even cohabiting, biological fathers who live with
their children are not as involved and affectionate with their children as
are married, biological fathers who reside with their children.16 2. Cohabitation is not the functional equivalent of marriage. As a group, cohabitors in the United States more closely resemble
singles than married people, though cohabitation is an exceptionally
heterogenous status, with some partners treating it as a prelude to Page 12 marriage, others as an alternative to marriage, others as an opportunity
to test for marriage, and still others as a convenient dating relationship.17
Adults who live together are more similar to singles than to married
couples in terms of physical health18 and emotional well-being and
mental health,19 as well as in assets and earnings.20
Children with cohabiting parents have outcomes more similar to
children living with single (or remarried) parents than children from
intact marriages.21 In other words, children living in cohabiting unions
do not fare as well as children living in intact, married families. For
instance, one recent study found that teenagers living in cohabiting
unions were significantly more likely to experience behavioral and
emotional difficulties than were teenagers in intact, married families,
even after controlling for a range of socioeconomic and parenting
factors.22
A major problem associated with cohabitation for children is that
cohabiting unions are much less stable than married unions. One recent
study found that 50 percent of children born to a cohabiting couple see
their parents’ unions end by age five, compared to only 15 percent of
children born to a married couple.23 This study also found that Latino
and African American children born into cohabiting unions were
particularly likely to see their parents break up.24 Another problem is
that cohabiting parents are less likely to devote their financial resources
to childrearing. One study found that cohabiting parents devoted a larger
share of their income to alcohol and tobacco, and a smaller share of
their income to children’s education, than do married parents.25
Selection effects account for a large portion of the difference between
married people and cohabitors. As a group, cohabitors (who are not
engaged) have lower incomes and less education.26 Couples who live
together also, on average, report relationships of lower quality than do
married couples — with cohabitors reporting more conflict, more
violence, and lower levels of satisfaction and commitment.27 Even
biological parents who cohabit have poorer quality relationships and
are more likely to part than parents who marry.28 Cohabitation differs
from marriage in part because Americans who choose merely to live
together are less committed to each other as partners and their future Page 13 together.29 Partly as a consequence, cohabiting couples are less likely
than married couples to pool their income.30 Another challenge confronting cohabiting couples is that partners often disagree about the
nature and future of their relationship — for instance, one partner may
anticipate marriage and another partner may view the relationship as a
convenient form of dating.31 3. Growing up outside an intact marriage increases the
likelihood that children will themselves divorce or become
unwed parents. Children whose parents divorce or fail to marry are more likely to
become young unwed parents, to experience divorce themselves someday, to marry as teenagers, and to have unhappy marriages and/or
relationships.32 Daughters raised outside of intact marriages are approximately three times more likely to become young, unwed mothers than
are children whose parents married and stayed married.33 Parental
divorce increases the odds that adult children will also divorce by at
least 50 percent, partly because children of divorce are more likely to
marry prematurely and partly because children of divorce often marry
other children of divorce, thereby making their marriage even more
precarious.34
Divorce is apparently most likely to be transmitted across the generations when parents in relatively low-conflict marriages divorce.35
Moreover, remarriage does not appear to help children. For instance,
girls in stepfamilies are slightly more likely to have a teenage pregnancy
compared to girls in single-parent families, and much more likely to
have a teenage pregnancy than girls in intact, married families.36
Children who grow up in stepfamilies are also more likely to marry as
teenagers, compared to children who grow up in single-parent or intact,
married families.37 Finally, new research also indicates that the effects of
divorce cross three generations. Grandchildren of couples who
divorced are significantly more likely to experience marital discord,
negative relationships with their parents, and low levels of educational
attainment, compared to grandchildren whose grandparents did not
divorce.38 Page 14 4. Marriage is a virtually universal human institution. Marriage exists in virtually every known human society.39 The shape of
human marriage varies considerably in different cultural contexts. But
at least since the beginning of recorded history, in all the flourishing
varieties of human cultures documented by anthropologists, marriage
has been a universal human institution. As a virtually universal human
idea, marriage is about regulating the reproduction of children, families,
and society. While marriage systems differ (and not every person or
class within a society marries), marriage across societies is a publicly
acknowledged and supported sexual union that creates kinship obligations and resource pooling between men, women, and the children that
their sexual union may produce. 5. Marriage, and a normative commitment to marriage,
foster high-quality relationships between adults, as well
as between parents and children. Some say that love, not marriage, makes a family. They argue that family
structure per se does not matter. Instead, what matters is the quality of
family relationships.40 Others argue that the marital ethic of lifelong
commitment needs to be diluted if we seek to promote high-quality
relationships. Instead, the new marital ethic should be conditional, such
that spouses should remain together only so long as they continue to
love one another.41
These arguments, however, overlook what we know about the effects
of marriage, and a normative commitment to the institution of marriage,
on intimate relationships. By offering legal and normative support and
direction to a relationship, by providing an expectation of sexual fidelity
and lifelong commitment, and by furnishing adults a unique social status
as spouses, marriage typically fosters better romantic and parental
relationships than do alternatives to marriage.42 For all these reasons, in
part, adults who are married enjoy happier, healthier, and less violent
relationships, compared to adults who are in dating or cohabiting
relationships.43 Parents who are married enjoy more supportive and less
conflictual relationships with one another, compared to parents who are Page 15 cohabiting or otherwise romantically involved with one another.44 In
turn, married parents generally have better relationships with their
children than do cohabiting, divorced, unmarried, or remarried parents.45
Some of the associations between family structure and family process
are products of selection — that is, couples with better relationships are
more likely to get and stay married. But as this report makes clear, the
research also suggests that the social, legal, and normative supports
provided by marriage foster better intimate relationships and better parentchild relationships.
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