Marriage promotes longevity, study finds

The security of a stable and healthy marriage provides the sanity and decompression that is necessary to functioning in such a stressful world, Sharon O'Neille, a 30-year licensed marriage and family therapist in Mount Kisco, N.Y., wrote in an email to the Deseret News.

The benefits of marriage go beyond the individual level, Lesli Doares, author of "Blueprint for a Lasting Marriage: How to Create Your Happily Ever After With More Intention, Less Work," said. Strong and healthy marriages provide a stable, secure base for children. "The more secure the child, the greater rewards for society as a whole in reduced violence, poverty, substance abuse, etc."

Since 1960, the poverty rates are lower in two-parent families than in single-mother families, according to The Future of Children, a research-oriented collaboration between the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and the Brookings Institution.

"The post-1960 changes in marriage and family formation also appear to be depriving children of such documented benefits of marriage as better physical and emotional health and greater socioeconomic attainment," The Future of Children found.

Rachel Lowry is a reporter intern for the Deseret News. She has lived in London and is an English graduate from Brigham Young University. Contact her at rachel.lowry@gmail.com or visit www.rachellowry.blogspot.com.