The marriage provides a short-lived kick, however.
Marriage provides a primary personal identity for them and their families.
Furthermore, because most Americans, myself included, believe that marriage provides a valuable social framework, many are quick to dismiss challenges to marriage-based benefits as a threat to the institution.
According to "A Thorny Issue for 2004 Race" (news analysis, front page, Nov. 19), the refusal by the Democratic presidential candidates to support a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage provides a "clean target for Republicans".
Even for people who do not eventually choose to marry, the prospect of marriage provides a destination for love and the expectation of a stable home in a welcoming community.
Balzac analyzes, through Goriot and others, the nature of family and marriage, providing a pessimistic view of these institutions.
Our Nation's first President and his wife had no children together, but their marriage provided a protective family structure for raising Martha Washington's children by her first marriage as well as her grandchildren".
One of the key ways a sociologist, including myself, would think marriage matters is the institutionalization, the norms around the behavior, how you're supposed to act, what you're supposed to do and it (marriage) provides a label you can internalize and that signals things to people around you.
[ 13] Married people in general are less at risk of depression than singles, although the direction of the relation is unclear: it could be that happy people are more likely to find and keep partners or that the support of marriage provides a protective effect.
