Year: 2011
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Marriage is strongly associated with better health.In part, this is due to the harmful effects of marital dissolutions.As remarriage becomes more common, so do multiple marital exits.It is unclear if more marital dissolutions lead to worse health.In this paper, I test whether multiple marital dissolutions -divorces and separations -exert a cumulative effect on health at midlife.Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth "79, I find that depression and low self-rated health at midlife are less prevalent among the continuously married than among those who have ever experienced a marital dissolution.However, I find no evidence of a cumulative effect on health.Higher-order marital dissolutions appear to have less of an effect on health than first dissolutions.Stress and resource theories suggest people may adapt to a first dissolution in ways that reduce health harm from future dissolutions.how to pursue them productively.I thank my committee members, Drs.Elizabeth Menaghan and Kristi Williams, for sharing their expertise on the topic and introducing me to new ways of thinking about health and family.
Author: Dmitry Tumin
Institution: The Ohio State University
Language: English
Subfield: Demography
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2598533903