Marriage

== Health and income ==
[[File:Nepalese marriage.jpg|thumb|Nepali wedding]]

Marriages are correlated with better outcomes for the couple and their children, including higher income for men, better health and lower mortality. Part of these effects is due to the fact that those with better expectations get married more often. According to a [[systematic review]] on research literature, a significant part of the effect seems to be due to a true [[causal]] effect. The reason may be that marriages make particularly men become more future-oriented and take an economic and other responsibility of the family. The studies eliminate the effect of selectivity in numerous ways. However, much of the research is of low quality in this sense. On the other hand, the causal effect might be even higher if money, working skills and parenting practices are [[endogenous]]. Married men have less drug abuse and alcohol use and are more often at home during nights.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://poseidon01.ssrn.com/delivery.php?ID=509005100118096013029118098012089101062011084076070069105105086101120100072091010104001126060041109056096079065098000091086109033026064092106096008004012067072006032033078082085099083073002028110006100077030027099031100001117072090001029071114089&EXT=pdf|archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20191026155722/https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id%3D500887|archive-date=26 October 2019|title=What Do Social Scientists Know About the Benefits of Marriage? A Review of Quantitative Methodologies|author=David C. Ribar|year=2004|publisher=IZA|pages=vi—viii, 7–8|access-date=4 August 2019}}</ref>

===Health===
{{Main|Marriage and health}}
Marriage, like other close relationships, exerts considerable influence on [[health]].<ref name="Robles2013">{{Cite web|url=http://psycnet.apa.org/psycinfo/2013-09831-001/|title=PsycNET|website=psycnet.apa.org|language=en|access-date=2019-07-17}}</ref> Married people experience lower [[morbidity]] and mortality across such diverse health threats as [[cancer]], [[Myocardial infarction|heart attacks]], and [[surgery]].<ref name="KiecoltGlaser2001">{{Cite journal|pmid=11439708|year=2001|last1=Kiecolt-Glaser|first1=JK|last2=Newton|first2=TL|title=Marriage and health: His and hers|volume=127|issue=4|pages=472–503|journal=Psychological Bulletin|doi=10.1037/0033-2909.127.4.472}}</ref> Research on marriage and health is part of the broader study of the benefits of social relationships.

Social ties provide people with a sense of identity, purpose, belonging, and support.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1177/0022146510395592|title=Mechanisms Linking Social Ties and Support to Physical and Mental Health|year=2011|last1=Thoits|first1=P. A.|journal=Journal of Health and Social Behavior|volume=52|issue=2|pages=145–61|pmid=21673143|s2cid=18169869}}</ref> Simply being married, as well as the quality of one's marriage, have been linked to diverse measures of health.<ref name=Robles2013/>{{clarify|reason=rewrite. This tends to "sort of" duplicate the first sentence. I can't move this first because then it would be too obvious!|date=January 2015}}

The health-protective effect of marriage is stronger for men than women.<ref name=KiecoltGlaser2001/><ref name="wanic2011">{{cite journal | last1 = Wanic | first1 = R. | last2 = Kulik | first2 = J. | year = 2011 | title = Toward an understanding of gender differences in the impact of marital conflict on health | journal = Sex Roles | volume = 65 | issue = 5–6| pages = 297–312 | doi=10.1007/s11199-011-9968-6| s2cid = 145011583 }}</ref> Marital status—the simple fact of being married—confers more health benefits to men than women.<ref name=KiecoltGlaser2001/>

Women's health is more strongly impacted than men's by marital conflict or satisfaction, such that unhappily married women do not enjoy better health relative to their single counterparts.<ref name=KiecoltGlaser2001/><ref name=wanic2011/><ref name="saxbe2008">{{Cite journal|pmid=18230009|year=2008|last1=Saxbe|first1=DE|last2=Repetti|first2=RL|last3=Nishina|first3=A|title=Marital satisfaction, recovery from work, and diurnal cortisol among men and women|volume=27|issue=1|pages=15–25|doi=10.1037/0278-6133.27.1.15|journal=Health Psychology|url=http://repettilab.psych.ucla.edu/Saxbe%20Repetti%20Nishina%202008.pdf|citeseerx=10.1.1.597.2884|access-date=27 October 2017|archive-date=19 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180819082339/http://repettilab.psych.ucla.edu/Saxbe%20Repetti%20Nishina%202008.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> Most research on marriage and health has focused on heterosexual couples; more work is needed to clarify the health impacts of [[same-sex marriage]].<ref name=Robles2013/>