22SP_SO205A-Sociology of the Family

Addressing the first question, wow. This is a question of correlation versus causation, and there are many mediating factors here. If the statistics accurately claim that comes depressive systems and mens alcohol abuse decline in marriage, and cohabitants have worse health outcomes, then there has to be factors leading into this. I have a few guesses, one being security. Marriage is a much larger commitment meaning partners in cohabiting relationship understand that the other can leave much more easily. Second, people cohabitating are statistically lower income which comes with much more stress and with stress comes many more health issues.

Addressing the second question, I think people delaying age of marriage are mostly doing it for educational purposes. Therefore, their mental health is probably not too good because school is stressful plus student loans. I think a good time to get married is subjective to the person. For me personally, the perfect time to get married is after I have completed all of my post secondary education and have dated who I want to marry for at least 3-5 years. I will also not get married until I have a trusted and solid start to a career where I can afford a wedding, marriage, and support someone.

I believe that the increase in cohabitation potentially could lead to an overall decline in men's and women's mental and physical health. I do believe that stability and support come with being married, and when two people choose to cohabitate, they are taking those two things away. Gracie makes a great point that with a typical cohabitation comes a lower SES, which I also agree adds more stress to the individuals and to the relationship itself. The only way I think that this wouldn't be true is if the two people enter the cohabitation with the understanding that they are going to get married, just not right now. I think this book paints cohabitation as a mutual agreement that the relationship is going to end at some point, but most cohabitations that I have heard of first-hand, the two individuals ended up getting married. When the cohabitation leads into marriage, I don't think it will overall hurt the mental and/or physical health of the two individuals.

I think the delay in marriage is due to extraneous occurrences such as school, lack of monetary support, and a stable job. I don't think it is delaying dating however. Therefore, I don't think the average age for getting married will continue to rise. However, if it did, I could see how it would negatively impact mental and especially physical health. The book mentions that loneliness can lead to physical detriment (266). I think a good time to get married is when one truly knows they are with the person they are meant for, when they are done with school, and when they both are financially stable (or close to it). For someone that is not going to grad-school, I would say somewhere in the 25-26 age range.

The overall health of Americans has been declining in recent years; there are many different reasons that it has but i think the marriage outlook of todays years has a massive impact on that. With increasing cohabitation i think it can regulate the health of someone much better than the people that delay marriage; however, its proven that marriage improves health of both men and women and i think that the increasing age of marriage will soon cause very extreme health issues very soon. Most men fall into addiction that may affect there ability to get married all together and if their addiction becomes too abusive they may never seek for marriage and continue down that road.

I don't think the decline in marriage and increase in cohabitation cause negative effects on Men and Women's health, but I do think these two are correlated. I do think that there are some negative effects associated with cohabitation without marriage on the health of men and women. Like Men in this situation may have the role a husband but without the title and this could cause stress on men because they may feel like they have to do that even though cohabited relationship could end at any time I think this applies to women just the same. I think delaying marriage and age of getting married could be a good thing because it could allow an individual to figure themselves out and not only see if they want marriage, but to also prepare for marriage if they choose to marry. It's hard to say when I think it's a right time for people to marry as it pertains to their health because everyone isn't the same and some people's ideal marriage timeline is different from other, it depends more so on the induvial and if they are in good space mentally, and physically to get married.

I think the declining marriage age will allow couples to become mentally and physically independent before they are joint as one. I think that is also an appeal of the declining marriage age. People are allowing themselves to be financially independent and grow more alone before they are growing with someone else and starting a family. I think this is helping them have healthier and overall better relationships, marriages, and lives. I think the delay of age of marriage continues to increase that people will focus on making themselves healthier and bettering themselves in a time frame best for them. They are allowing themselves to be able to do and experience and learn what they want and need to prior to a marriage.

I believe that the increase in cohabitation not resulting in marriage can impact people's mental and physical health. The action could lead to distrust since one side of the party can leave whenever they want. If the cohabiting couple has kids, I could see even more issues with this since a parent can go when the going gets tough or does not want to take control anymore. I do not think the increasing age in marriage is a bad thing because, more times than not, it means more school, resulting in higher pay. A good time to get married is when both are happy with where they are in life, and their finances are correct to help each other out.

I do not think that there is huge impact on people’s mental and physical health because there is a no big differences between marriage and cohabitation when it comes to living together. However, marriage has more responsibility to your partner with the events such as wedding and low which promises their relationship. The difference in the way of living together is how people think about their own family. Also, having a place where people can relax and go back is one of the biggest things to support your mental and physical health. Belonging to any kind of community such as family or neighborhood is also one of the things that help people live more healthily.

Depending on the individual person and couple dynamic, I think it could negatively impact some or positively impact others. I'm not really sure what that might look like as a big picture thing in the future, but one could assume it would vary or have trends by age, SES, heterosexual/same-sex couples, education level, race, etc. For the second question, I think it could potentially have a positive effect on an individual's health. Since marriage is such a big commitment, people would be more stable financially, mentally, etc. before they do get married. I think getting married is most ideal when both partners are in a secure place in their mental, physical, and social health. This would look different for each couple, but I think most people now want to be overall in a good place before making that kind of decision.

I believe that the increasing delay and age for marriage, in reference to the second paragraph, is largely related to the increasing student-loan debt count among recently graduated students. People who have tens of thousands of dollars of debt do not want to marry as early because they don't want to have the expenses of a marriage on top of the chances of having to pay student loans for two people. I don't believe that the increasing delay in marriage directly correlates to lower levels of health, however it definitely plays a part. I think that the ideal age to get married is when a person is debt-free in terms of student loans, and they have a job that can support two people.

I think that the decline in marriage rates and the increase in cohabitation in America have both been coinciding with the decline in public health we have seen over the past several decades. Having the security and commitment of marriage not only unifies people sexually, but economically and legally as well. I think this security is beneficial to mental and physical health for both men and women. There isn't one answer as to when someone is ready to get married, but i think whenever you have developed enough as a person to be able to love and be committed completely to another person you are ready for marriage.

I think that the reason for women's depression and mens alcohol use declining could just be due to growing older. Older people tend to be happier so that could account of women's depression statistics. Also, if you have been married for years, you most likely have had time to go to AA or rehab if you need to. it could be that now you have a obligation to the other person to keep yourself healthy and happy in marriage but, if you actually care about the person you are cohabitating with, wouldn't you want to be healthy with them as well? I think some part of this could be the people that are choosing to be married have to think through this decision and learn to not only make a decision for themselves but for someone else. People who are cohabitating might not think that way since they have not made any promises on paper in a legal way.
I don't think that the delay in regards to marriage will affect a persons mental health. Just because you're not married does not mean that you can't be healthy in your physical and mental health. In some cases, I can see it helping your mental health if you like to be independent.