Benefits for Adults

• Married men and women have lower mortality rates and tend to have better overall health than their single counterparts.
• Married couples tend to have more material resources, less stress and better social support than people who are not married.
• Married men are less likely to abuse alcohol.
• Both married men and women report significantly lower levels of depression and have better overall psychological well-being than their single, divorced, widowed and cohabitating counterparts.
• Married African-Americans have better life satisfaction than whose who are single.
• Married men report higher wages than single men and have been found to be more productive and more likely to be promoted.
• Married women tend to have substantially more economic resources than single women. The economic benefits of marriage are especially strong for women who come from disadvantaged families.

Benefits for Children

• Children from families with married parents are less likely to experience poverty than children from single-parent or cohabitating families.
• Children born to cohabitating couples have a higher chance of experiencing family instability, a factor that has been linked to poor child well-being.
• Children from married, two-parent families tend to do better in school than those who grow up in single-parent or alternative family structures.
• Children from intact, two-parent families are less likely to experience emotional and/or behavioral problems.
• The more time children live in a married, two-parent home, the less likely they are to use drugs.
• Children from intact, two-parent families are less likely to have children out of wedlock in their future relationships.
• Women with married parents are less likely to experience a high-conflict marriage.
• Single mothers report more conflict with their children than married mothers.
• The rate of infant mortality is lower among married parents.
• Children living with their married, biological parents are less likely to experience child abuse.