Women benefit more from living together than marriage

Study co-author Claire Kamp Dush, an associate professor of human sciences at Ohio State University, tells Yahoo Health that she was surprised by the findings. They even found decline in mental distress in men when they directly went to marriage and not when they moved in with a romantic partner for the first time. “It’s not that way anymore”, affirmed Dush, who continued saying that they have been noticing that marriage is not vital to derive the benefits of living together, at least when it comes to emotional health.

The data used in the study has been drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997. The survey’s volunteers were interviewed every-other year between the years 2000 and 2010.

The case for men is slightly different, as they are less likely to experience a boost in emotional well-being in either situation, since they are more likely to see moving in together as a test of their relationship, one often leading to subsequent love life problems.

Authors of the study believe these new findings are surely going to change the way, modern relationships are perceived.

The research clearly highlights the changing landscape of the American population in terms of relationships.

As recently as 1990, people still reported getting a high boost of emotional health benefits when getting married.

“Now it appears that young people, especially women, get the same emotional boost from moving in together as they do from going directly to marriage”, said Sara Mernitz, co-author of the study and a doctoral student in human sciences at The Ohio State University. Not to be misunderstood, if a young woman were to move in with her lover and then get married afterwards, the emotional boost would only apply to the first one.

Researchers found that women experienced a decline in emotional stress when they moved in with a romantic partner or when they went straight to marriage.

Other studies have shown that perhaps other behavioral indicators in men, such as drinking or violence, might be a more accurate way to determine emotional distress.

The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about emotional health. For instance, in men entering their second union-whether via marriage or cohabitation-they showed no difference in signs regarding emotional health when compared to female counterparts.

In this recent study, the emphasis was placed on marital status, and its potential impact on emotional state. The researchers warned they only looked at emotional distress, meaning the stress of raising a baby could have manifested itself in other ways for these couples.

Kamp Dush said that marriage may provide some benefits over cohabitation that were not measured in this study, such as stability.