It is obvious that married men are much healthier men. However for women, the health benefit of marriage depends largely on the health of the marriage.
Over and over again, the research proves that marriage is beneficial for men’s health. For women, though, the picture has been a bit more unclear. Several studies indicate that women need marriage like a fish needs a bicycle.
According to the recent study, that’s true, but only for women who are not perfectly satisfied with their marriages. Women who claim that their marriages are extremely satisfying have better heart health, healthier lifestyles, and not many emotional problems, reveal Linda C. Gallo, PhD, and her colleagues.
"Women remaining in high-quality marriages really benefit from being married," Gallo explains to WebMD. "They are less probable to develop heart disease in the future. And as far as emotional distress is concerned, satisfied women reported more social support and being less angry, depressed, and nervous."
However, not only the less-satisfying marriages appeared to be bad. The women in good marriages were also significantly healthier than divorced, widowed, and single women. So first-class marriages are healthy in and of themselves.
The Toll of Unsatisfying Marriage
Gallo and colleagues investigated women enrolled in the University of Pittsburgh’s Healthy Women research. This long-lasting research is designed to weed out the factors that are responsible for women’s greater risk of heart disease after menopause.
The research collected information from 490 women in their 40s - almost all of them were married - and followed them for thirteen years. The results were published in the September 2003 issue of Health Psychology.
Women who received little or no satisfaction from their marriages came to the research in much worse health. They did not improve over time. Happily married women started out in rather good health and aged well.
"Women in unhappy marriages - and in this group, this meant not all of them were that distressed, but less happy than other women – have already been suffering from the adverse effects of being in a less-than-happy marriage," Gallo explains. "The women that were happy in their marriages were thinner, gained less weight over time, and had not so high levels of cholesterol as others. The less happy women usually exercised less."
What’s going on? Is there anything magic about saying "I do?"
"It does not necessarily have to be heterosexual cohabitation," Gallo claims. "Human connectedness is a basic primary need for people. Being in a marriage or being in a close relationship with somebody is a relevant part of life. When everything is good, it doesn’t just make life enjoyable. It is also advantageous for health. When people are in happy situations, perhaps they exercise together; perhaps they eat healthy meals together. It is adaptive."
Marriage Different for Men, Women
There still remains that nagging question of why the average marriage is healthier for the average man than for the average woman. This issue has been analyzed carefully by Timothy J. Loving, PhD, assistant professor in the University of Texas’ Department of Human Ecology.
"Men identify their wives or partners as their major support, someone who is there to talk to," Loving explains to WebMD. "Women preserve a bigger support network. They are able to use other relationships for support. Wives do not obtain as much from their marriages, on a psychosocial level, as a husband would."
According to Boston University psychologist Deborah Belle, EdD, that is very true. Belle has investigated the health effects of relationships for over twenty years. She has also discovered that only happily married women benefit from marriage, however married men get a benefit no matter if the marriage is happy or not.
Why? According to Belle, one of the reasons is that women appear to be much more sensitive to the negative aspects of relationships than men. The second reason is that women support their partners or husbands better than men do.
"What is even most striking is that men’s support is very deeply dependent on one partner - the wife," Belle explains to WebMD. "Women specialize in providing support. Women’s socialization and subordinate social status teaches women to concentrate on the needs of other people - and more than men, they believe that the needs of others can easily be met. Frequently women dedicate their lives to offering support for other persons."
This doesn’t mean that men don’t - or can not - be helpful partners. They obviously can. Furthermore, women can be dreadful partners. However, typically, women as wives are usually supportive. The average husband receives more support from his wife than the average wife receives from her husband.
Evidence comes from the research of men’s and women’s relationships. Men and women are less lonely when they report spending time with women. Time spent with men does not have any significant influence on decreasing loneliness, Belle claims. And in times of stress, both men and women turn to women for emotional support.
"I am widowed after a long marriage to a wonderful man," Belle explains. "I married again a month ago. I have a wonderful husband. I don’t think men are not capable of offering support. It’s just that not all men achieve it."
Are Single Women Doomed?
And although Gallo’s research revealed that happily married women are significantly healthier than unmarried women, she does not think that all women need to marry or suffer from some diseases.
"If we had been able to break down the group of single women in our research, we would perhaps discover that it contains a subgroup of single women who are extremely satisfied," Gallo explains. "They have acquaintances and colleagues, they have careers, they get some things that women highly satisfied with their marriages get. I suppose it is achievable to fulfill those needs in a different way. It is simply more the social norm to get married."
Obviously, there’s nothing magic about marriage. Gallo warns that whilst a happy marriage is beneficial and good for a woman, an unhappy marriage is a horse of a different color.
"Women who are unhappy in their marriages are at the greatest risk," she claims. "Therefore, just getting married is not as relevant as getting a quality partner."
