Marriage
harmful to society?!
Boloney!
The opposite is true. (Get ready for a long post)
Anthropologist J. D. Unwin conducted an exhaustive study of the 88 civilizations which have existed in the history of the world. Each culture has reflected a similar life cycle, beginning with a strict code of sexual conduct and ending with the demand for complete "freedom" to express individual passion. Unwin reports that every society which extended sexual permissiveness to its people (i.e., demolish marriage) was soon to perish. There have been
no exceptions.
Compared with unmarried people, married men and women tend to have lower mortality, less risky behavior, more monitoring of health, more compliance with medical regimens, higher sexual frequency, more satisfaction with their sexual lives, more financial savings, and higher wages. A lower mortality risk among those who are married has been shown to persist even after health in early adulthood was controlled. This suggests that at least part of the benefit of marriage is not the result of selection of healthier people.
Adverse outcomes accrue to children of divorce and children raised in single-parent families. Although not all single-parent families are the result of divorce and not all divorced mothers remain single, virtually all children of divorce spend some time in a single-parent household until the mother remarries. Even when the mother does remarry, studies suggest that children in step families are similar to children in single-parent families; both groups of children do worse than children living with two parents in terms of academic achievement, depression, and behavior problems such as drug and alcohol abuse, premarital sexual intercourse, and being arrested.
Compared with two-parent families, single-parent families demonstrate lower levels of parental involvement in school activities and lower student achievement. Children raised in single-parent families are more likely to drop out of high school, have lower grades and attendance while in school, and are less likely to attend and graduate from college than children raised in two-parent families. They are more likely to be out of school and unemployed and are more likely to become single parents than children raised in two-parent families. Studies have found that compared with children in two-parent families, children of divorce score lower on measures of self-concept, social competence, conduct, psychological adjustment, and long-term health.
Married people live longer, experience less depression, are more emotionally and physically healthy, have lower rates of alcoholism and substance abuse, and higher income and savings levels than the unmarried. The lowest rates for mental hospital admissions are consistently found among the married.
Sociologists acknowledge that when families remain intact, it creates a cohesive, integrating effect on its members, which serves as a strong deterrent to suicidal tendenciesfor parents and children. The benefits of marriage and family have been proven to directly affect both the parents and children of the couple. For example, the state would not have to be burdened with caring for fatherless children or the elderly who never had children.
Traditional marriage improves the health of its participants, has the lowest rate of domestic violence, prolongs life, and is the best context in which to raise children.
TAKE THAT, MSN!
