Marriage Notes- Good for society

American Academy of Pediatrics Panel, “Marriage is beneficial in many ways” because people “behave differently when they are married. They have healthier lifestyles, eat better, and mother each others health.” Looking at the effects on children, the Panel stressed that this advantage is not found in step family households nor in households headed by unmarried cohabitating parents. (Pediatrics, 2003)

Another research team found that the advantages given to children by intact marriages extend beyond the individual child: the existence of such marriages also predicts the overall health of a school and a neighbourhood → that is, intact families are essential for creating “a social world [that] is ordered in ways that generally favour young persons.” (that from the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 2004)

Regarding child sexual abuse, for example, data from Canada showed that preschool-age children living with their natural parents are forty times less likely to become abuse victims than are those children living in alternative arrangements. (Ethology and Sociobiology, 1985)

The children from such homes are ― on balance ― also much healthier, in both mind and body, than those growing up in any other setting. They earn higher marks in school; indeed, family structure is superior to all other competing theoretical explanations for differences in child achievement. (Journal of Early Adolescence, 2000; Social Problems, 2000)




From the article: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/why_australia_and_the_world_needs_a_renewed_culture_of_marriage/
October 2010