Contrary to popular perception, Wilcox said, data indicate that married men and women are markedly happier than their unmarried counterparts.
“We’ve been seeing a lot of stories … talking about the ways in which [women], for instance, are kind of really miserable in marriage and miserable as mothers,” Wilcox said, citing a recent media report alleging that “married moms were less well off” than “single, childless women.”
“In fact, the data point us in exactly the opposite direction,” he said. “What we see is that for both women and men, the path to prosperity and happiness kind of runs right through marriage. So both women and men who are married, for instance, are almost twice as likely to be very happy with their lives compared to their single peers.”
“There’s really no group that’s as happy for men as married dads and for women as married moms,” Wilcox said. “So as tough as marriage [and] as tough as being a parent can be, the upside to having a spouse and kids for most Americans is pretty high.”
The happiness factor, Wilcox said, shows up even more prominently in married couples who attend church regularly.
“What we see in this data is that couples who attend church together are about 15 percentage points more likely to be very happy with their marriages,” Wilcox said. “They’re about 30% to 50% less likely to get divorced, depending upon the data set.”
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