WASHINGTON, Feb. 8, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- To celebrate National Marriage Week (Feb. 7-14), Family Research Council's Marriage and Religion Research Institute has released a new paper entitled 162 Reasons to Marry. This important new study demonstrates that marriage is beneficial across a wide range of personal outcomes, including family, religion, education, finances, crime and health.

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162 Reasons to Marry shows that married persons:

• enjoy stronger relationships with their children;
• worship more regularly;
• participate more actively in their children's education;
• work more productively;
• enjoy greater financial stability;  
• have better mental and physical health; and
• are less likely to commit crime or abuse or to be victims of domestic violence.

Furthermore, those raised in intact married families are more likely to practice sexual chastity, to worship more regularly, to expect and attain more educationally, and to exhibit better physical and mental health. They are also less likely to experience poverty as children or to experience or commit violence.

Dr. Patrick Fagan, Director of the Marriage and Religion Research Institute, writes:

"Marriage is the foundational relationship for all of society, and therefore we can be sure that there are many more than the 162 reasons for marriage enumerated here. All other relationships in society stem from the father-mother relationship, and these other relationships thrive most if that father-mother relationship is simultaneously a close and a closed husband-wife relationship."

Fagan says the outcomes evaluated (family, religion, education, marketplace and government) represent all five of the major institutions, or tasks, of society.  

Fagan said:

"The family is one of the five major institutions of society. Within a family built on a good marriage, the child gradually learns to value and perform the five fundamental tasks of every competent adult and of every functional society – raising a family, practicing religion, receiving an education, working in the marketplace and participating in government. Children raised in strong families are mentored in all these areas, often unconsciously, and gradually they learn to act similarly. That is how we grow a great society.  There is no short cut on this one."

162 Reasons to Marry is available online at www.marri.us/reasons-to-marry.

SOURCE Family Research Council

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