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posted by cmn32480 on Wednesday August 12 2015, @08:02PM   Printer-friendly
from the so-I-didn't-have-to-get-married??? dept.

a new study published in AJPH indicates that adults who are cohabitating have midlife health outcomes that are similar to adults in formal marriages. So in terms of the benefits specific to marriage, we can probably strike "longer, healthier life" from the list.

The study in question used 10,000 subjects from the British national Child Development Study, a birth cohort study that includes all people born in Britain during one week in March 1958. Participants were able to select their partnership status as married, cohabitating, or single. Health was measured using blood and inflammatory biomarkers, as well as respiratory capacity. The researchers controlled for previous socioeconomic status, previous health status, educational attainment, income, employment, and other demographic variables.

The study's results varied by gender. Among men, those who had never married/cohabitated displayed poorer overall health than men who were married during the observation period. By contrast, not marrying or cohabitating had less of a detrimental effect on women than on men. For women, the timing of the marriage mattered. Those who were married in their late 20s or early 30s had the overall best health, beating out both women who had married in their early 20s and women were never married/cohabitating.

Does co-habitating with cats or dogs count?


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  • (Score: 2) by jdavidb on Wednesday August 12 2015, @08:28PM

    by jdavidb (5690) on Wednesday August 12 2015, @08:28PM (#221896) Homepage Journal

    So in terms of the benefits specific to marriage, we can probably strike "longer, healthier life" from the list.

    Do the benefits still accrue if you break up? How does the break up rate compare to the divorce rate for marriages?

    Was there any accounting made for the fact that women in a cohabiting relationship (and their children) are far more likely to be victims of domestic violence than women and children in a marriage?

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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by VLM on Wednesday August 12 2015, @09:04PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday August 12 2015, @09:04PM (#221921)

    I cheated and read the article and found

    The study found that changes in status had no obvious impact—the transitions from/to marriage and nonmarital cohabitation did not have a detrimental effect on health.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 13 2015, @06:47AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 13 2015, @06:47AM (#222148)

      I cheated and read the article

      I just reported you to the Soylent Police!

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 13 2015, @03:33PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 13 2015, @03:33PM (#222348)

      The study found that changes in status had no obvious impact—the transitions from/to marriage and nonmarital cohabitation did not have a detrimental effect on health

      I don't believe that for a minute, even if the study focussed only on physical health. Studies and meatspace experience seems to indicate that elevated stress levels are harmful to physical health, and it is the rare exception where someone "transitions from" marriage and even nonmarital cohabitation without tons of stress, drama, and gnashing of teeth.

  • (Score: 2) by Taibhsear on Wednesday August 12 2015, @09:07PM

    by Taibhsear (1464) on Wednesday August 12 2015, @09:07PM (#221925)

    women in a cohabiting relationship (and their children) are far more likely to be victims of domestic violence than women and children in a marriage?

    More likely to be victims or just more likely to report it?

    • (Score: 2) by kurenai.tsubasa on Wednesday August 12 2015, @09:57PM

      by kurenai.tsubasa (5227) on Wednesday August 12 2015, @09:57PM (#221951) Journal

      Reporting is always the bugbear in these matters. This summary piece [heritage.org] is from The Heritage Foundation so obvious bias, but I don't believe the numbers are unreliable:

      The DOJ's National Crime Victimization Survey collects data on victimization through an ongoing survey of a nationally representative sample of Americans. The survey defines violent crime as rape, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault. Domestic or intimate abuse is defined as violent crimes performed by a spouse, former spouse, boyfriend, or former boyfriend.

      Ten years of NCVS data (from 1992 to 2001) reveal interesting patterns among mothers (ages 20-50) with children under the age of 12.4 Specifically:
      Never-married mothers experience more domestic abuse. Among those who have ever married (those married, divorced, or separated), the annual rate of domestic violence is 12.9 per 1,000 mothers. Among mothers who have never married, the annual domestic violence rate is 26.3 per 1,000.

      (Emphasis mine, standard disclaimer about the survey method's own bugbears.)

      The American Bar Association has an extensive collection of links to studies [americanbar.org] for further analysis, but I'm feeling too lazy at the moment to stare down that mountain of data.

      My question is how those data compare to ever-married and never-married men, and of course that doesn't answer the corresponding question about men and women who choose not to have children either. The answer to our questions may be somewhere in data mountain, so I may revisit it if nobody has a link off the top of their head.

      My conjecture would be that this all probably correlates with impulsiveness.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 13 2015, @12:06AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 13 2015, @12:06AM (#222013)

    Marriage wouldn't fix that issue, because it's just some garbage social ritual that lots of people believe is magic. Take someone who abuses their partner and put them in a marriage and it will almost certainly continue.

    • (Score: 2) by jdavidb on Thursday August 13 2015, @05:16AM

      by jdavidb (5690) on Thursday August 13 2015, @05:16AM (#222129) Homepage Journal

      Nevertheless, ruling out men who want to cohabit before marriage drastically improves the odds of a woman and her children avoiding domestic violence.

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      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 14 2015, @02:35AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 14 2015, @02:35AM (#222641)

        Nevertheless, ruling out men who want to cohabit before marriage drastically improves the odds of a woman and her children avoiding domestic violence.

        Since when is there a correlation? What would really help improve her odds of avoiding domestic violence is leaving immediately after the first hit and never coming back, instead of staying with him and acquiescing to further violence, like most women do for some idiotic reason.

        • (Score: 2) by jdavidb on Friday August 14 2015, @03:46PM

          by jdavidb (5690) on Friday August 14 2015, @03:46PM (#222874) Homepage Journal

          Since when is there a correlation?

          My source for the information is Dr. Willard Harley, who cites several studies that have shown that cohabiting drastically increases the occurrence of domestic violence.

          What would really help improve her odds of avoiding domestic violence is leaving immediately after the first hit and never coming back

          Harley teaches that as well. And to be very frank, my wife insisted that I leave our home three years ago because of my own angry outbursts. I didn't come back until successfully learning anger management, and if it ever happens again I am gone. So, yes, you are right that this also improves the odds astoundingly.

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