Marriage

===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/>