Is marriage healthy? Much research has already looked into the question, claiming that this institution had beneficial effects on the heart, life expectancy or even mental health. But what is it really? A new one study carried out by a sociological researcher at Ohio State University and published in the journal Social Science Quarterly today demonstrates the opposite.
Cultural changes involved?
Dmitry Tumin, who conducted this research, drew on the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, a longitudinal survey of American households. He was thus interested in the health of 12,373 people married during different periods of time (up to four years, from five to nine years, then 10 years or more) and born during different decades (between 1955 and 1964, between 1965 and 1974, then between 1975 and 1984). Participants were asked to rate their general health on a regular basis on a scale from “excellent” to “poor”.
The researcher found that the health benefits of marriage worsened over time: these benefits were only visible in couples who had been married for more than 10 years. And among those married between 1975 and 1984, the last decade studied, these benefits had completely diminished.
For Dmitry Tumin, this phenomenon is explained in particular by cultural changes which have removed the “protective effects” of marriage. He explains that couples marry later and later and that the marriage has become a source of anxiety: “With more demands at home and at work, and less time spent together, married couples today see marriage more as a source of conflict and stress than as something which protects their health, “concludes the researcher.
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