Marriage or cohabitation can improve the emotional health of young couples, and especially that of women. Researchers found that emotional distress decreased in young single women when they moved in with a romantic partner or when they got married for the first time. Men experienced a decrease in emotional distress only when they married directly, not when they moved in with a romantic partner for the first time. And when young adults ended a first relationship, both men and women received similar emotional boosts by moving in or marrying their second partner (Mernitz & Dush, 2016).
The findings suggest an evolutionary role for marriage among today’s young people, said Sara Mernitz, co-author of the study. In the early 1990s, young people still experienced emotional health benefits when they moved from living together to getting married; Now it seems that young people, especially women, get the same emotional boost from moving in together as from getting married outright, she said. “There is no extra boost to getting married.”
The findings suggest that the stigma of living together does not carry the same weight as in past generations, said Dr. Claire Kamp Dush, co-author of the study and associate professor of human sciences. Today, about two-thirds of couples live together before marriage.
“At one time, marriage may have been seen as the only way for young couples to get the social support and companionship that is important for emotional health,” Kamp Dush said.
According to research, marriage is no longer necessary to reap the benefits of living together, at least when it comes to emotional health.
If you value articles like this, consider supporting us by becoming a Pro subscriber. Subscribers enjoy access to members-only articles, materials, and webinars.
Another significant finding was that the emotional benefits of cohabitation or marriage are not limited to first relationships. The study found that young adults experienced a drop in emotional distress when they moved from a first relationship to cohabitation or marriage with a second partner.
According to Kamp Dush, the young people who participated in the study may have selected better partners for themselves the second time around, which may explain the drop in emotional distress.
The researchers used data from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. This study included 8,700 people who were born between 1980 and 1984 and were interviewed every two years between 2000 and 2010.
In addition to asking about their relationship status in each interview, participants were asked five questions to assess their levels of emotional distress. They reported on a scale from one (all the time) to four (never) how often in the past month they had felt “down and out and depressed and other symptoms.”
The researchers explain that the current study has advantages over studies that simply compare groups of single, married, and cohabiting people.
“We can look at people over a 10-year period and see what happens to them individually as they make these various transitions in their relationships,” Mernitz said.
Some gender differences were discovered, at least for first marriage or cohabitation unions. As for those entering a first union, men experienced a decrease in emotional distress only if they married directly. There were no changes in distress among men who lived with a female partner.
This may be because men are more likely than women to see cohabitation as a way to try out a relationship, which has been linked in other research to later relationship problems.
Additionally, Kamp Dush noted that this study assessed only emotional distress. Other research suggests that behavioral indicators of health (such as alcohol use or violence) may be more accurate for men than emotional indicators.
In any case, gender differences were visible only for the first unions. There were no differences in emotional health changes for men and women entering their second union, whether marriage or cohabitation.
The study also found that people who gave birth (or whose partner gave birth) showed significant decreases in emotional distress compared to those who did not have a child. That may seem surprising, given the stress associated with having a child, Kamp Dush said. But he noted that this study only examined emotional distress. There may be other ways that the stress of raising a child manifests itself in these couples.
Bibliographic reference:
Mernitz, S.E., & Dush, C.K. (2016). Emotional health across the transition to first and second unions among emerging adults. Journal of Family Psychology: JFP: Journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association, 30(2), 233-244. https://doi.org/
Fountain: