Some Myths about Marriage

Posted on February 25th, 2008 by olga

Here are some myths about marriage.
1. Marriage advantages men much more than women. Different to earlier and extensively publicized stories, recent research finds men and women to benefit about equally from marriage, even though in different ways. Both men and women live longer, happier, healthier and wealthier lives when they are married. Husbands on average increase greater health advantages while wives get greater financial advantages.

2. Having children characteristically brings a married couple closer together and boosts marital happiness. Many studies have demonstrated that the arrival of the first baby regularly has the outcome of pushing the mother and father farther apart, and carrying stress to the marriage. On the other hand, pairs with children have a slightly minor rate of divorce than childless pairs.

3. The keys to lasting marital success are good luck and romantic love. Rather than luck and love, the most widespread motives pairs give for their long-term marital success are commitment and companionship. They characterize their marriage as a creation that has taken hard work, dedication and commitment (to each other and to the institution of marriage). The happiest pairs are friends who share lives and are compatible in interests and values.

4. The more educated a woman becomes, the lower are her chances of getting married. A current study based on marriage rates in the mid-1990s concluded that today’s women college graduates are more likely to marry than their non-college peers, even though their older age at first marriage. This is a change from the past, when women with more education were less likely to marry.

5. Pairs who live together previous to marriage, and are consequently able to test how well suited they are for each other, have more satisfying and longer-lasting marriages than pairs who do not. Many studies have found that those who live together previous to marriage have less satisfying marriages and a significantly higher possibility of eventually breaking up. One motive is that people who live together may be more skittish of commitment and more likely to call it quits when difficulties take place. But additionally, the very act of living together may lead to thoughts that make happy marriages more easily said than done. The findings of one recent study, for instance, propose that there may be less motivation for cohabiting partners to increase their conflict resolution and support skills. One significant exception: living together couples who are previously planning to marry each other in the near future have just as good a chance at staying together as couples who don’t live together earlier than marriage.