Researchers focusing on the growing numbers of unmarried Americans are finding social benefits to singlehood. One study finds singles more connected to family and friends than married peers; another says unmarried offspring help their parents more than those who are married. Another shows marriage lifts the spirits, but only temporarily.
In 2006, the number of never-marrieds 18 and older hit 55 million, Census data show, up from 45 million 10 years earlier.
"We have spent the last decade talking about how great marriage is, but there are also costs," says sociologist Naomi Gerstel of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Among findings:
•Marriage reduces social ties, suggests analyses by Gerstel and Boston College's Natalia Sarkisian, published last fall by the American Sociological Association. A yet-unpublished study found less parental contact, including financial and emotional support, less among married offspring. "Unmarried siblings pick up the slack," Gerstel says.
•A boost in happiness associated with marriage returns to pre-marriage levels over time, found psychology professor Richard Lucas of Michigan State University. He analyzed 20 years of data from 70,000 households in Great Britain and Germany. He also has found that among singles studied, those who never married report the highest rate of well-being.
•Across social classes, women are less likely than in the past to see marriage as an economic benefit and are raising their standards for a long-term relationship, says New York University sociologist Kathleen Gerson, who is studying 120 men and women ages 18 to 32.
•Pressure from family or friends to marry doesn't hurt women's self-image, says a study by Penn State's Chalandra Bryant and Duke University's Linda Burton, presented to the Society for Research in Child Development.
