What Do We Know About the Link Between Marriage and Health?

Married people enjoy better physical and mental health than those who are not married, and the children of married parents experience better health than do children raised in single-parent families. Furthermore, married parents and their children have longer life expectancies than do members of single-parent or divorced families. Most studies have examined the marriage-health link for the general population, combining data together across all racial groups. In this article, the authors present nine new studies that begin to fill gaps in their knowledge about the link between marriage and health among African Americans. They examine whether marriage affects health among African Americans, and they identify some of the pathways through which this may happen. The authors describe the disparities in health between African Americans and other racial and ethnic groups. They provide an overview of marriage rates among African Americans, as well as emerging research on attitudes toward marriage. (Contains 1 note.)