Marriage and the ability to start a family are human rights. Ten years ago, on June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Obergefell v. Hodges case extended the right to marry to same-sex couples.
With 7.6% of Americans identifying as LGBTQ+, this decision continues to have an impact beyond legal benefits.
Marriage provides unique advantages – a reality we have come to know as psychology researchers who focus on couples. The right to marry allowed same-sex couples the opportunity to experience these advantages.
Benefits of a healthy marriage
Although evidence largely comes from different-sex couples, psychology research documents the numerous benefits healthy marriage confers on well-being. Married people experience more positive emotions. They also have many physical health advantages, such as being more likely to survive cancer or major surgery. Children of married couples seem to benefit as well.
A healthy marriage brings benefits that are distinct even from what couples in long-term relationships experience. Those who are married have better psychological well-being, such as less depression and better physical health than people in nonmarital romantic relationships, even those who live with their partner.
Not surprisingly, the benefits of being married do not extend to unhappy marriages. The effects of marriage on physical well-being, life satisfaction, depression and mental health more broadly depend on marital quality, and so do outcomes for children.
What’s so special about marriage?
What makes a happy marriage different from a happy cohabiting, stable relationship when it comes to well-being? Social scientists don’t know, but there are a few theories.
The one with the most empirical support involves a concept from physics called inertia. Applied in relationship science, inertia describes the idea that a relationship will remain the same or continue moving along the same trajectory unless some outside force acts upon it.
As relationships progress, they naturally gain momentum. Partners invest more into their relationship over time. They exchange gifts, meet each others’ friends, and start staying at each others’ homes. Eventually, a natural step in this progression is either cohabitation or marriage.
Marriage is a milestone, marking a new stage in life. Deciding to get married is a long-term commitment that often takes years of planning. Cohabitation, on the other hand, is easy to slide into due to the forward trajectory of a relationship. Cohabitors tend to stay together less as an intentional choice but for convenience.
The intentional lifelong commitment of marriage may explain why it offers more benefits than cohabitation.
Same-sex marriage has been legal nationwide in the U.S. since June 26, 2015.
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