Both authors hope their findings, and those of other researchers, will promote a shift in public attitudes, encouraging marriage and discouraging divorce. One quarter of Americans between the ages of 18 and 44 have divorced parents. At least a million children a year since 1971 have come out of divorced families. She emphasizes that people in unhappy marriages can have happy children. Professor Waite, a sociologist at the University of Chicago, also challenges the widely held belief that divorce is usually the best answer for children when a marriage becomes troubled.
Every marriage has bad patches.
When people stay with the marriage, very often it gets better maybe a lot better. Among couples who stick it out, she finds, permanent marital unhappiness is surprisingly rare. Not all unhappy couples should stay together, of course. In cases of abusive relationships and long-term unhappiness, Waite observes that from the standpoint of physical and emotional health, couples are better off single. Married couples enjoy better health, make more money, and often live longer than their single counterparts.