We are well used to the debate about marriage focusing on the potential harm that separation, divorce, cohabitation etc has on children. And rightly so, as all the evidence tells us that children reared outside of intact marriages are more likely to experience poverty, abuse, take drugs, become sexually active earlier, drop out of school etc. Not only is that bad for children there’s a knock-on effect to society too. 

However, there’s another case for marriage that isn’t heard as often but deserves a mention. Yes, children fare much better when raised by their biological parents in intact marriages but there is also plenty of evidence that adults fare better in marriage too. Married people do much better than the unmarried, separated or divorced people. They are healthier, happier, and are even financially better off. 

The liberals try to devalue marriage as “only a piece of paper”. At the same time they are doing their best to have marriage as a ‘right’ for homosexual couples. 

Clearly marriage is more than just a piece of paper. For the most part, people who cohabit don’t enjoy the same kinds of health and wellbeing that men and women who marry do. So there is definitely something more to that piece of paper that makes a difference. So what do married couples have that unmarried couples don’t? 

Unlike cohabiting couples, married people make a lifetime commitment to each other. There is a reassuring certainty in this commitment that isn’t found in other types of partnerships. This commitment and responsibility for one another is supported by the couple’s family and by their community. 

Although marriage is more than a piece of paper, that piece of paper is vitally important. It means they have committed their lives to each other. It reinforces the commitment that the couple makes and that commitment builds confidence that the relationship will last. 

The net personal, social and financial outcome of this lifetime commitment is that married couples, on average, live longer, healthier, wealthier and happier lives together than unmarried couples. So while it is true that the main reason why society supports marriage is children, this support has beneficial knock-on effects for adults as well, which in turn are passed on to the children in a kind of ‘virtuous circle’.