MPs yesterday debated national marriage week, exploring the link between marriage and mental health. The debate, whilst low on numbers, was comprehensive in manner and received good replies from the SNP, Labour and Government spokespersons.

Fiona Bruce MP led the debate, speaking of the relationship between marriage and mental health noting, “It is not just the quality of the parents relationship that matters, but also, it is increasingly recognised, the stability of the parents relationship, if that relationship endures and endures throughout childhood.

We can’t avoid the evidence; all the evidence shows that marriage as opposed to cohabitation is much more likely to endure and much more likely to promote stability. Just one in eleven married couples split up before a child’s fifth birthday compared to one in three unmarried couples.”

Andrew Selous MP, contributing to the discussion noted:

“Why does marriage matter? It does matter, because we know that unmarried couples are six times more likely to break up before their child’s fifth birthday. If we are all on the same page and wanting to avoid poverty, having a serious evidence based recognition of the fact that family breakdown is a major contributor to child poverty, then actually we need to look at the type of relationships that are going to give our children the best chance of not growing up in poverty.

There are a number of facts we need to be concerned about: the first is that the marriage rate itself is in freefall, if you look at the figures it is really declining…it is even worse than that because marriage rates among the better off are holding up quite well. A company director or university lecturer is 48% more likely to be married than a building worker or office cleaner, and that gap is growing. In 2000, the gap was only 22%. Basically, marriage is almost completely disappearing from low-income communities. We have to call a spade a spade and recognise that fact.”

Jim Shannon MP spoke personally of his own marriage:

“Marriage is a wonderful thing, but like all things of worth it’s not easy. I speak as someone who has been married for 32 years… A strong marriage requires two people who choose to love each other even when there are times when we don’t particularly like each other.

The positive effect of marriage on mental health is clear for all to see. What was particularly interesting to me in this study by the Marriage Foundation is that the effect of marriage extends well beyond stability and selection effects. For boys whether their parents were married or not when they were born remains one of the two biggest influences on their subsequent overall mental health.”