Is Marriage Good For You? It Is If You Are Depressed.

A new evaluation of the National Survey of Families and Households performed at Ohio State University questions the old belief that marriage is good for everyone. Going in the examiners thought that depressed people would benefit less from being married because of the strain that depression can put on a relationship. What they found instead was that most of the benefits seen as a result of single people getting married are limited to depressed people. There may not be a marriage benefit in general for non-depressed people. Kristi Williams, assistant professor of sociology at Ohio State, explained that "marriage may give depressed people a greater sense that they matter to someone, while people who weren't depressed prior to marriage may have always thought that way." The results of the study were presented in Montreal at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.