Same sex marriage and the perceived assault on opposite sex marriage.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Marriage benefits both individuals and societies, and is a fundamental determinant of health. Until recently same sex couples have been excluded from legally recognized marriage in the United States. Recent debate around legalization of same sex marriage has highlighted for anti-same sex marriage advocates and policy makers a concern that allowing same sex couples to marry will lead to a decrease in opposite sex marriages. Our objective is to model state trends in opposite sex marriage rates by implementation of same sex marriages and other same sex unions.

Methods and findings

Marriage data were obtained for all fifty states plus the District of Columbia from 1989 through 2009. As these marriage rates are non-stationary, a generalized error correction model was u

SUBMITTER: Dinno A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3679150 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature