What Do We Know About the Link Between Marriage and Health?

Abstract

Married people enjoy better physical and mental health than those who are not married (Schoenborn, 2004), and the children of married parents experience better health than do children raised in single-parent families (for reviews,

Subjective financial well-being, income and health inequalities in mid and later life in Britain

“…Longitudinal studies are required to clarify the direction of causation of identified relationships, for example, whether the poor health of the divorced/separated is because being married 'protects' against illhealth or ill-health 'selects' people out of marriage (Koball et al, 2010). We use a measure of income based on self-reports of all household members, which may lack reliability.…”

Families and Health: A Review

“…Marriage has long been suggested to have a protective effect on health (including survival; for reviews see Koball et al 2010;Rendall et al 2011). Such a causal effect is said to result from both economic advantages and social support inherent in a marriage.…”

Household Position, Parenthood, and Self-reported Adult Health. Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Evidence from the Austrian Generations and Gender Survey

“…In a longitudinal study, Joung et al (1998) showed that married people who reported various health complaints or chronic conditions were significantly more likely to become divorced than people without these health problems. More recently Koball et al (2010) confirmed this health selection into marriage using data on African Americans. Similarly, a longitudinal study by Brockmann and Klein (2004) provided empirical evidence that marriage, especially a long-lasting first marriage, had positive health effects which accumulated over time and thus promoted longevity.…”