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Science & Additional Commentary 

PARAGRAPH 1

 

We, the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.

  • "The share of people who thought it was important for a couple planning to spend the rest of their life together to actually get married fell from 73% in 2006 to 64% in 2013." – Gallup Polling 

  • People who were married reported the highest levels of well-being, regardless of whether they were happily married or not. “Even when controlling for relationship happiness, being married was associated with higher self-esteem, greater life satisfaction, greater happiness and less distress.”  – Claire Kamp Dush and Paul Amato, “Consequences of Relationship Status and Quality for Subjective Well-Being,” Journal of Social and Personal Relationships 22, 5 (2005): 607-627.

  • Married people were happier and healthier than widowed, divorced, separated, cohabiting or never-married people, regardless of race, age, sex, education, nationality or income.  – Charlotte Schoenborn, "Marital Status and Health: United States, 1999-2002," Advance Data from Vital and Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 351 (2004). 
     

  • “The ‘haves’ are generally those in stable marriages. The ‘have nots’ are generally those who live outside of marriage, especially with children. So vast is the difference, one is tempted to replace the traditional notion of social class with the more descriptive term marriage class.” – Steven Nock, “Illustrations of Family Scholarship:  Introduction to the Special Issue,” Social Science Research 35 (June 2006): 322-331.

  • Two-thirds of unhappily married spouses who stayed married reported that their marriages improved within five years. The most unhappy marriages reported the most dramatic turnarounds: among those who rated their marriages as “very unhappy,” almost eight out of 10 who avoided divorce were happily married five years later.   – Linda Waite, Don Browning, William Doherty, Maggie Gallagher, Ye Luo and Scott Stanley, “Does Divorce Make People Happy?  Findings from a Study of Unhappy Marriages,” New York:  Institute for American Values, 2002: 148-149.  

 

  • In only 10 percent of divorces did both partners feel they achieved happier lives.  – J. S. Wallerstein and S. Blakeslee, “Second chances: Men, women, and children a decade after divorce,”  Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin (2004).

 

  • Relationship violence was found to be a significant problem for homosexuals. Forty-four percent of the gay men reported having experienced violence in their relationships; 13 percent reported sexual violence and 83 percent reported emotional abuse. Levels of abuse ran even higher among lesbians: 55 percent reported physical violence in their relationships, 14 percent reported sexual abuse, and 84 percent reported emotional abuse.   – Susan C. Turrell, "A Descriptive Analysis of Same-Sex Relationship Violence for a Diverse Sample," Journal of Family Violence 13 (2000): 281-293.

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The Family Proclamation Project is independent of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

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