Some advocates worry that governmental support for marriage will result in increased numbers of women being trapped in unhappy or even violent marriages. Research suggests otherwise. Marriage has a Positive Effect on Adult Well-Being. Married adults are physically, emotionally, and financially healthier than unmarried adults. As a result, the percentage of unmarried adults has skyrocketed, and the percentage of children being raised by single adults has increased dramatically.
Poverty often follows unwed parenthood, or is the result of marital dissolution.
Married women are safer, healthier, and wealthier than are single women, especially single women with children. Marriage has a Positive Effect on Child Well-Being. A child raised by his or her biological parents is much less likely to experience poverty, neglect, abuse, homelessness, or early nonmarital sexual activity than is a child raised by a single parent. And not just any male will do, either. Government programs to help single mothers have sometimes had the unintended effect of discouraging marriage by withholding from married couples subsidies for which unwed parents qualify.