As a husband and a father, I paid attention when a report linking marriage and happiness came out last month and was reported in The Atlantic.

That report found that, among female demographics, married mothers enjoy the highest levels of happiness, connection, and purpose — a finding that challenges the modern myth that marriage and motherhood are a burden for women.

The 2025 Women’s Well-Being Survey was conducted by the Institute for Family Studies and the Wheatley Institute, and surveyed 3,000 American women aged 25 to 55.

It found that married mothers are around twice as likely to describe themselves as “very happy” compared to unmarried women and childless married women.

The survey controlled for age, income, and education, ruling out these factors as causes of the differences.

Marriage Provides Social Anchors

Our culture tends to focus on the negatives of marriage — particularly its cost on the social life of parents. However, this latest research found the opposite — namely, that married women are far less likely to experience loneliness.

Only 11% of married mothers reported feeling lonely most or all of the time, compared with 23% of unmarried mothers. Part of the reason for this appears to be that married women are more likely to take part in meaningful social interactions through church, volunteering and other community activities.

Physical touch, which plays a big part in emotional health, is another advantage for married women, according to the survey. Nearly half of married women reported receiving frequent hugs, kisses or opportunities to snuggle, compared with just 23% of unmarried mothers and 13% of unmarried women without children.

“Touch is strongly linked to happiness,” the report concluded. “Women who experience high levels of touch are more than three times as likely to be very happy as those who receive little touch.”

Parenthood and Meaning

While I’m a father — not a mother — I can certainly relate to the transforming effect that marriage and children have had, not just on my emotional wellbeing, but also my sense of purpose.

The survey also looked at the latter, and found that 49% of married mothers feel their life is meaningful most or all of the time, compared to just 32% of unmarried women without children. In fact, mothers — whether married or single — are more likely to strongly agree that their life has value and purpose than women without children.

Of course, motherhood comes with a cost. Around 64% of mothers reported feeling overwhelmed, and 58–59% wish they had more time for themselves. My wife would certainly relate!

However, these pressures do not diminish the overall higher happiness and life satisfaction associated with raising children within a committed marriage.

And isn’t it true of most things in life — that what costs and challenges us also brings us the deepest satisfaction?

Cultural Consequences

While the study had plenty of good news to report, it also contained some warnings.

The authors noted a concerning cultural trend — that declining marriage and fertility rates, especially among young women, are partly driven by persistent negative messaging about family life.

For years, headlines promoting singleness and childlessness have contributed to a generational shift away from marriage and motherhood. In 2023, only 72% of 18-year-old women in the US said they expected to have children, down from 85% in the late 2000s.

Writing for The Atlantic, Jean Twenge — one of the study’s authors — warned that these messages neglect the profound joy, connection, and purpose marriage and motherhood provide.

She writes, “Parenthood can be exhausting, but it offers a deep knowledge that you are doing something important with your life: nurturing a human being.”

To be clear, women who are single or childless through circumstances beyond their control should never be made to feel shame — and that’s not the purpose of this research or my choice to highlight it.

Instead, the takeaway is simple and uplifting: marriage and motherhood remain irreplaceable sources of human joy, love, and relational stability. The combination of marriage and motherhood consistently produces the highest levels of well-being for women, demonstrating that these roles, though demanding, are profoundly rewarding.

This revelation should inform public policy and cultural messaging so that we can strengthen marriage and family, while providing support for single mothers.

Most of all, it should cause us to appreciate and celebrate the married mothers in our lives who are changing the world in more ways than they realise.

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Image courtesy of Unsplash.