How Marriage Fights Against Deaths of Despair

by Daily Citizen Staff | December 4, 2024 | Marriage

It has long been shown in the academic literature that marriage serves as a substantial buffer against numerous life factors that harm one’s health and as a powerful promoter of those things which enhance personal well-being.

This is true for men, women and children who have married parents, as well as society as a whole when marriage rates are strong in a community.

A new study published by the American Sociological Association examines how marital status impacts deaths of despair stemming from alcohol, drug overdose and suicide in the United States from the years 2000 to 2021.

The four scholars authoring this study explain “We found the nonmarried exhibit mortality rates 2 to 3 times higher in alcohol and suicide deaths and 4 to 5 times higher in drug-related deaths compared to the married population, net of education.” Those differentials are stunning.

They explain how powerful the marriage well-being premium is: “This magnitude of marriage advantage is comparable to educational differences in these deaths.” Marriage is as powerful as education in improving lives because it is an education. It teaches us to live well with others; and with ourselves.

Examining these three factors for life well-being is important as “the increase in mortality due to suicide, alcohol, and drug overdose has become the main factor leading to stagnation or decline in U.S. life expectancy over recent decades.” These scholars add “The marriage advantage widened substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

As you can see in the second column of the graph below from this study, marriage was a profound protectant against deaths from alcohol, drugs and suicide across the board, but especially during the COVID years.

The third column, entitled Ratio of Rates, has married status as the baseline and shows how dramatically and consistently mortality rates are higher for divorced, widowed and never married individuals.

Male/Female Differences

Marriage has been shown to benefit men and women when it comes to overall well-being, but it doesn’t do so equally.

This is because men and woman are different in dramatic and surprising ways. Marriage generally favors men because it settles them down, curtailing their more dangerous and less healthy behavior. This is a sociological truism.

This research demonstrates this. The authors state, “In fact, most of the deaths from alcohol, drug overdose, and suicide happened among males, and mortality increased faster among males than females in all three types of deaths.” But they add, “The marriage advantages are higher for males than females for alcohol- and drug-related deaths” and “the unmarried-married ratios are similar between males and females for suicide and that the absolute magnitude of mortality rates for females is substantially large [although still much lower than the males].”

General Conclusion

Beyond protecting from deaths of despair by alcohol, drugs and suicide, these scholars point out other important benefits of marriage:

More recent studies have shown that marriage establishes social norms and a sense of transcendental purpose/meaning of life, contributing to reducing risky and health-threatening behaviors and encouraging health-aware behaviors. The married population has been found to have lower levels of substance use, such as alcohol and drug use.

They continue,

Marriage also plays a crucial role in stress reduction and is a strong predictor of mental health outcomes, such as depression and anxiety. Furthermore, marriage provides economic benefits so that people can buffer stress and have better living conditions, better access to health services, and higher quality of care.

Marriage is a universal gift from God, a common grace given to humanity across all cultures and times. It is the first institution God gave to Adam and Eve, and humanity.

The Lord’s first command to humanity – to go forth and multiply – is also a marital command. No wonder social scientists who do good, honest work are discovering its benefits and publishing those findings in leading academic journals. They are simply observing and reporting on what God wired into humanity, whether they realize its source or not.

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