By sifilings on
Anything Else
Marriage

Gen Y: Beware of Being Alone for Most of Your Lives

Census: Marriage rate at 93-year low

The fabric of our society is rapidly changing. Now for the first time, most people over 16 in the U.S. are single: eating alone, sleeping alone, watching TV alone, and supporting themselves alone.

Discussion

Fri, 09/19/14

Interesting that it comes from an oncologist, not a sociologist. And it reminds me of what I’ve noted to people who recklessly divorce their spouses, refuse to have children, or mistreat their families; “you’re setting yourself up for a very lonely time on your deathbed.” And apparently community has something to do with how quickly one reaches that deathbed, too.

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.

Fri, 09/19/14

it’s important for everyone to have a network of close friends and family regardless of whether they have a spouse. just because marriage is at an all-time low doesn’t mean there are fewer close relationships than before. this is a typical wall street journal generational complaint article with nothing backing up the idea that marrying one’s live-in girlfriend/boyfriend will improve their health.

and the study that weiss refers to does not back up the claim she’s making against the younger generation. it was a study of older people, and there were many limitations that make any broad conclusions unfounded.

Mon, 09/22/14

[Jim]

it’s important for everyone to have a network of close friends and family regardless of whether they have a spouse. just because marriage is at an all-time low doesn’t mean there are fewer close relationships than before.

Married is much more than close friends and family!

You mean I owe Connie more than just bowling nights and dinner at Applebees? Who knew? :^)

Seriously, well said, and I think it illustrates the criticality of marriage vs. close friends and family, or even vs. a live-in lover. Family is not a helper suitable, nor does the live-in lover inspire the long term time preference that a spouse does. Hence it does entirely different things for a man.

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.

Mon, 09/22/14

[Jim] Married is much more than close friends and family!
that’s true, but the study’s flaws prevent comparison of health benefit between different degrees of closeness and support. clearly a good marriage is good for one’s health, but a bad marriage, a divorce or the death of a spouse can be worse for one’s health than never marrying.

Is Marriage Good for Your Health?

Perhaps the most striking finding concerned single people who had never married. For more than 100 years, scientists have speculated that single people, because they generally have fewer resources, lower income and perhaps less logistical and emotional support, have poorer health than the married. But in the Chicago study, people who had divorced or been widowed had worse health problems than men and women who had been single their entire lives. In formerly married individuals, it was as if the marriage advantage had never existed.

The ‘Chicago’ study referred to is:

Hughes, Mary Elizabeth; Waite, Linda J. (September 2009). “Marital Biography and Health Midlife”. The Journal of Health and Social Behavior. 50 (3): 344–58.