Posted By Luci on July 21, 2010

From Mercatornet comes a useful short piece discussing a new study by Debbie S. Barrington, “The Increasing Protection of Marriage on Infant Low Birth Weight Across Two Generations of African American Women,” 31 Journal of Family Issues 1041 (2010).  The study abstract states:

An increasing protection of marriage on infant LBW across the two generations was found after adjusting for socioeconomic and demographic confounding factors via (a) logistic regression using generalized estimating equations, (b) propensity score analyses taking into account the differential distribution of confounders across the generations, and (c) sensitivity analyses that adjusted for childhood health of the mother prior to marriage. Intergenerational findings also suggest that marriage across generations was most protective against infant LBW; the lowest risk for LBW was found among women who were both married when they gave birth to their infants and had mothers who were married at the time they themselves were born.

Put simply, babies born to married parents tend to be healthier than those born to unmarried parents.  While correlation doesn’t necessarily imply causation, numerous studies suggest that parents’ marital status has a definite, tangible impact on the health of mothers and babies alike.

Barrington explains, “Marriage is believed to promote the health of mothers and infants via several mechanisms correlated with optimal perinatal outcomes. These include increased socioeconomic position, better social support, increased pregnancy intendedness, lower maternal smoking rates, greater adequate maternal weight gain, more adequate prenatal care, and decreased genital tract infections during pregnancy among married women versus unmarried women (Bennett, 1992; Bennett, Braverman, Egerter, & Kiely, 1994; Chomitz, Cheung, & Lieberman, 1995; Kalinka, Laudanski, Hanke, & Wasiela, 2003; Ventura, 1995).”

The same journal issue contains an article by Heather L. Koball, et. al., “What Do We Know About the Link Between Marriage and Health?” 31 Journal of Family Issues 1019 (2010).  The authors summarize existing research as follows:

Married people enjoy better physical and mental health than those who are not married (Schoenborn, 2004), and the children of married parents experience better health than do children raised in single-parent families (for reviews, see Amato, 2001; Amato & Sobolewski, 2001; Waite & Gallagher, 2000Wood, Goesling, & Avellar, 2007). Furthermore, married parents and their children have longer life expectancies than do members of single-parent or divorced families (e.g., Hayward & Gorman, 2004; Kaplan & Kronick, 2006; Schwartz et al., 1995). There are several explanations for this link between marriage and health, including that healthy people are more likely to marry and less likely to divorce. The research suggests, however, that for some outcomes, marriage itself seems to improve health. (emphasis added)

Scholarly literature abounds with articles on the benefits of stable marriages for parents and children!

Categories: Mothering
Tags: children, marriage, motherhood