Unmarried Couples Who Live Together Are Happier Than Marrieds
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Are they smiling because there are no rings on their fingers? New science says yes. Photo: Flickr/Lara604
The study from Cornell University, “Reexamining the Case for Marriage: Union Formation and Changes in Well-being,” will be published in the February issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family (and is already available online).
When the honeymoon's over
“We found that differences between marriage and cohabitation tend to be small and dissipate after a honeymoon period, "said Kelly Musick, associate professor of policy analysis and management at Cornell’s College of Human Ecology, who co-authored the study with sociologist Larry Bumpass of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "Also while married couples experienced health gains – likely linked to the formal benefits of marriage such as shared health care plans – cohabiting couples experienced greater gains in happiness and self-esteem. For some, cohabitation may come with fewer unwanted obligations than marriage and allow for more flexibility, autonomy and personal growth."
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTBlurring the boundaries of marriage
“Marriage has long been an important social institution, but in recent decades western societies have experienced increases in cohabitation, before or instead of marriage, and increases in children born outside of marriage,” said Musick. “These changes have blurred the boundaries of marriage, leading to questions about what difference marriage makes in comparison to alternatives.”
"Musick & Bumpass raise important points," said Archie Roberts, MA, LMHC, an East-Side-based therapist. "Marriage and other established social institutions have been undergoing profound changes since the feminist movement (including less stigma against cohabiting couples)--and many of these changes have a very real upside."
Challenging traditional wisdom about marriage, well-being
Indeed, previous research has sought to prove a link between marriage and well-being, but many studies compared marriage to being single, or compared marriages and cohabitations at a single point in time, according to the study's authors. The new study compares marriage to cohabitation while using a fixed-effects approach that focuses on what changes occur when single men and women move into marriage or cohabitation and the extent to which any effects of marriage and cohabitation persist over time.
"Some cohabitating couples benefit immensely from increased 'flexibility, autonomy, and personal growth,'" said Rogers. "With any social transformation of this scale, though, there are both gains and losses." Roberts said that the study focuses mostly on the benefits of these social changes, and he credited that as an important corrective to prevailing research on the benefits of traditional marriage. "But it can also lead people to disregard potential costs," he said.
What about the long haul?
"For example," Roberts said, "some (certainly not all) people who choose to cohabitate instead of marrying might pay a price in terms of lessons about, say, 'commitment during difficult times in the relationship, shared responsibilities to one another, and interdependence over the long haul.' As with all these larger social trends, the specifics play out differently with each couple depending on all kinds of variables."
“Compared to most industrial countries, America continues to value marriage above other family forms,” concluded Musick. “However our research shows that marriage is by no means unique in promoting well-being and that other forms of romantic relationships can provide many of the same benefits.”
The study was funded in part by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences.
For an interview with Archie Roberts about online dating, don't miss GoLocalTV, fresh every day at 4pm and on demand 24/7, here.
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