Be Healthy and Happy

There is no doubt that a stable family life is a great contributor to healthy lives. According to Family in America, experiencing parental divorce is associated with a 44% increase in mortality risk, shortening the life span of a white male child by an average of 4.5 years.

Marriage and family life are strong medicine for steering young people and adults, especially males, away from destructive life styles. Fewer married men drink, smoke and do other drugs. They also avoid dangerous sexual practices and other risky behavior. Marriage is healthy for the adults and for the children. Divorce is unhealthy for everybody.

There is good news about the family. Ken Bryson, co-author of a recent report on family trends, says, The perceived decline of the American family is vanishing and the '90s represents a stabilization period. For example, the percentage of married couples with children fell from 50 percent to 37 percent of all families between 1970 and 1990. It only dropped 1 percentage point (to 36 percent) since then.

According to Policy Review, about two-thirds of all divorces is the result of what they call low-level conflict rather than trauma or long term abuse. A key to successful coupleling is learning how to resolve these conflicts before it is too late.

If you are unhappy in marriage, call for help. If you are fed up with conflict, do not despair. Help is on the way. It is not hopeless.