Posted on 09/10/2023 7:31:32 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
New research on marriage has drawn significant attention, leading to several widely read articles on the matter. Early last month, at UnHerd, in a piece entitled “The best predictor of happiness in America? Marriage” authors W. Bradford Wilcox and David Bass write:
Americans who are married with children are now leading happier and more prosperous lives, on average, than men and women who are single and childless.
Is that statement surprising? In an age that prizes individualism, workism, and a host of other self-centric ‘isms’ above marriage and family, it may well be. But the reality is that nothing currently predicts happiness in life better than a good marriage.
The UnHerd authors base their conclusions on a study published in July out of the University of Chicago. Looking at “The Socio Political Demography of Happiness,” the research concluded, “Being married is the most important differentiator with a 30-percentage point happy-unhappy gap over the unmarried.”
On the results of the study, researcher Sam Peltzman declared:
Marital status is and has been a very important marker for happiness. The happiness landslide comes entirely from the married. Low happiness characterizes all types of non-married. No subsequent population categorization will yield so large a difference in happiness across so many people.
With countless amounts of anecdotal evidence, and with decades of social science research that shows the same, there’s little doubt that marriage is indeed an important “predictor” or “marker” for happiness. However, this shouldn’t be confused with the idea that marriage is the cause of happiness. In other words, if you’re miserably unhappy, or even moderately so, don’t simply look to marriage to change this.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
In other words, it’s those—whether they are married or not—with the proper understanding of what is marriage who are most likely to be happy before and after marriage. As Miss Khazan herself admits, “marriage doesn’t make you happy; rather, happy people get married.” She continues:
One 15-year study of more than 24,000 Germans, for instance, found that those who got married and stayed married were happier than the unmarried ones to begin with, and any happiness boost they got from the marriage was short-lived. ‘Most of the research indicates that the happiest couples marry, not that marriage causes happiness,’ Brienna Perelli-Harris, a demography professor at the University of Southampton, in the United Kingdom, told me over email.
So, who are these happy people? Most likely, they’re Christians, or at least the “religious.” Again, there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence that proves this true. As we live out our daily lives, typically those who have a measure of faith in the One who made us are the most pleasant to encounter and seem most content with the world around them. This is in spite of whatever difficult circumstances in which they might find themselves.
And yes, there is research that shows Christians, or at least those who are “religious,” to be the happiest among us. In April of this year, Christian Headlines declared “Americans Who Believe in God Are the Happiest People in the U.S.” They based this conclusion on a Wall Street Journal-NORC survey and report:
A handful of strong beliefs separate those who are ‘very happy’ from the rest of Americans. An overwhelming majority of ‘very happy’ people – 68 percent – say belief in God is very important to them. That’s a significantly higher percentage than among the ‘pretty happy’ group (47 percent) and the “not too happy” group (42 percent).
It can, but the vast majority of marriages are mismatched, so no.
Both partners have to be in it to serve each other for the marriage to work. I view it in the form of trading life energy.
If you give a little bit of your life energy, doing something nice, and the other does the same the marriage will be strong.
But when one is giving his life energy doing nice things and the other isn’t, the person doing the giving will eventually on the inside.
Happy wife, happy life.
When Mama ain’t happy, nobody’s happy.
The misogynistic manosphere is gonna hate this news.
Nothing equals “happiness”.
Some things may lead to happiness. But happiness is an extremely short term event. Its a peak event.
Contentment is a level of existence that people really need to shoot for. Contentment isnt a quick fast peak moment. Contentment is a state of being.
Marrying my husband was the best decision of my life.
Being his wife has been a privilege.
He is loving, stable, ethical, hardworking, funny, still as handsome after 30 years, and ranks a 10 out of 10 in the boudoir.
I married the male equivalent of a unicorn.
Ill have to second that emotion. The best 17 years of my life have been with Mr. GG2. I’m married to my best friend. I jokingly refer to him as my prince but that’s exactly who he is. I treasure every day we have together.
So happy for you!
Spoil him :)
I hope you have a long and blessed life together.
Next month is our 50th anniversary. Married my highschool sweetheart 4 months after we graduated at 18. We did it right the first time and we waited 4 years to have our first of two daughters.
Life is what you make it. We’re both retired and enjoying life.
Congratulations! I’ve been married to the love of my life for over 30 years. We’ve raised a family and are happily retired together. God has been good.
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