Marriage and Children’s Health and Longevity

by Maggie Gallagher

Summary: Divorce and unmarried childbearing has significant negative effects on children’s physical health and life expectancy.

One study which used the National Health Interview Survey to track changes in children’s health after their parents’ separation found that divorce increased the incidence of health problems in children by fifty percent. Fifty-eight percent of white married (including remarried) parents say their child is in "excellent" health, compared to just 46 percent of white single mothers. The health advantage of married homes for children remains even after taking into account income and socioeconomic status.

For babies, marital status can mean the difference between life and death. White babies born to unwed mothers are 70 percent more likely to die in the first year, and black infants born out of wedlock are 40 percent more likely to die. Even a college degree does not erase the marital status risk: babies of white, unwed college graduates were still 50 percent more likely to die than babies born to educated white mothers who were also married.

The negative health effects of parental non-marriage and divorce linger long into their children’s adulthood. Even in Sweden, a country with extensive supports for single mothers and a nationalized health care system, one recent study found that adults raised in single-parent homes were about one-third more likely to die over the study period. Even after taking economic hardship into account, researchers found adults from non-intact families were 70 percent more likely to have circulatory problems, 56 percent more likely to show signs of mental illness, 27 percent more likely to have chronic aches and pains, and 26 percent more likely to rate their overall health as poor.

One study which followed a sample of gifted, middle-class children for 70 years found that parental divorce reduced a child’s life expectancy by four years, even after controlling for childhood health status and family background, as well as personality characteristics such as impulsivity and emotional instability. Another analysis of this same data found that 40 year old men whose parents had divorced were three times more likely to die than 40 year old men whose parents stayed married: "[I]t does appear," the researchers conclude, "that parental divorce sets off a negative chain of events, which contribute to a higher mortality risk among individuals from divorced homes. . .It seems less likely that a simple selection artifact could explain the all-cause mortality risk in children who have experienced parental divorce. More likely, behavioral or psychological consequences of parental divorce that have health-damaging effects are involved."

Overall, children who grow up outside of intact marriages have higher rates of mental illness, even after controlling for predivorce characteristics. The "marriage gap" in mental health is not a consequence of temporary divorce trauma, but persists long into adulthood. A large Swedish study found that as adults, children raised in single parent families were 56 percent more likely to show signs of mental illness than children from intact married homes.

One important study following more than 11,000 British children found "a negative effect of divorce and its aftermath on adult mental health. Moreover, a parental divorce during childhood or adolescence continues to have a negative effect when a person is in his or her twenties or thirties." A study of 534 Iowa families found that divorce increased the risk of depression in children. Even when mothers and fathers remained involved and supportive and did not engage in conflict post-divorce, boys whose parents divorced were at increased risk for depression. Children in cohabiting couples also show poorer emotional health than children from married, two-parent families, closely resembling children in remarried and single-parent families. The majority of divorces today appear to take place in low-conflict marriages, and the psychological damage to children from these divorces is substantial.

Maggie Gallagher is a syndicated columnist and author of several books and reports on marriage and unwed mothers. Maggie is an affiliate scholar at the Institute for American Values and is the director of its Marriage Project.