Marriage can be both wonderful and hard. It takes sacrifice and cooperation. What are the statistics? What is the long-term benefit (or detriment) of marriage to a career?
Hint: It’s Valentine's Day
1. Companies with married CEOs perform better.
- Firms with married CEOs have a lower bankruptcy risk, less exposure to business uncertainty shocks, and better institutional corporate social responsibility. Companies with married CEOs have higher credit ratings. Cai, Xiangshang & Gao, Yang & Wu, Zhiting & Yuan, Jiayi, 2024. "Chief executive officer marital status and corporate credit ratings," International Review of Financial Analysis.
- There are several studies on married CEOs and the percentage married settles in at around 80%. Whether married people rise to the level of CEO more as an individual accomplishment or a hiring bias is not clear, but according to Pew Research, census data suggests less than only 50% of adults are married, and 25% over 40 have never been married, so CEOs are married at a higher rate. https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finana/v95y2024ipas105752192400317x.html
2. Supportive spouses inspire mates to take on more challenges.
3. Happily married couples have better health
- Married men live longer than single men, by about two years. This is likely because of the care and advocacy of healthy behavior from their partner. Married men take better care of themselves than even those who live together and don’t marry.
- Other friendships take the burden off of couples who otherwise might rely on each other more frequently for emotional support. Women in particular have stronger marriages if they maintain other friends.
- Women in marriages characterized by high levels of satisfaction showed a health advantage when compared with participants in marriages characterized by low levels of satisfaction and with unmarried participants (single, widowed, or divorced). This included lower levels of biological and lifestyle cardiovascular risk factors - such as blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and body mass index - and lower levels of psychosocial cardiovascular risk factors - such as depression, anxiety, and anger. https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2003/09/marital-benefit
4. Bad marriages cancel out benefits. If you can’t fix things, staying together may not be the right answer.
- A 12-year study by Penn State University of 1,150 couples showed that unhappily married individuals do not reap the marriage bonus of better overall happiness, life satisfaction, self-esteem, and health. Hawkins and Boot, the researchers, noted "The social and emotional support available to individuals from marriage is not being obtained by those who are unhappily married."
- Individuals who divorce and remain unmarried have greater life satisfaction and higher levels of self-esteem and overall health than unhappily married individuals. -Hawkins and Booth "Unhappily Ever After: Effects of Long-Term, Low Quality Marriages on Well-Being," which appeared in the journal, Social Forces. https://www.psu.edu/news/research/story/unhappy-marriages-detrimental-self-esteem-and-health
5. Good marriages share certain characteristics (Drawn from Lewis Howes: The School of Greatness)
- Couples are friends first, enjoying each other’s company, and wanting to share thoughts.
- Good long-term relationships have boundaries with family. The partnership comes first.
- They accept each other as themselves. You will not radically change the other person.
- They went through tough times and came out together. They are emotionally regulated.
- They fought and were frustrated, but knew how to bounce back.
- They could laugh at each other’s shortcomings, without being demeaning.
- They completed milestones together. They respect and appreciate each other’s role.
6. Love yourself. Love your spouse.
- Self-love, not in a narcissistic way, but respect and care for self is important for both parties to bring balance to the relationship.
- Self-positivity bias helps improve psychological health. Lack of a self-positivity bias (or even a self-negativity bias) may contribute to mood and anxiety disorders https://nesslabs.com/self-love
- Here are some of the evidence-based benefits of self-love, or self-positivity bias:
o Increased self-awareness
For Valentine’s Day thank your spouse for their contribution to your well-being, and take care of yourself whether you are married or not.
