Examined United States national survey data from 1972 through 1986 General Social Surveys conducted by the National Opinion Research Center. Found rather steady decline from 1972 through 1986 in positive relationship between being married and reported happiness. Change occurred primarily through increase in reported happiness of never-married…

Data from three recent U.S. national surveys corroborate earlier evidence indicating that married persons, as an aggregate, report substantially greater global happiness than any category of unmarried persons; and the difference, according to the data reported here, is greater for females than for males. Includes comments by Jessie Bernard at end.…

Data from seven recent American national surveys found that persons remarried after divorce had rather high levels of reported well-being, but never-remarried women reported lower aggregate marital happiness than never-divorced married women or never-remarried men; the difference was not explained by race, age, or socioeconomic variables.…