Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2009 Sep;50(3):344-58.
doi: 10.1177/002214650905000307.

Marital biography and health at mid-life

Mary Elizabeth Hughes  1 , Linda J Waite
Affiliations

Marital biography and health at mid-life

Mary Elizabeth Hughes et al. J Health Soc Behav. 2009 Sep.

Abstract

This article develops a series of hypotheses about the long-term effects of one's history of marriage, divorce, and widowhood on health, and it tests those hypotheses using data from the Health and Retirement Study. We examine four dimensions of health at mid-life: chronic conditions, mobility limitations, self-rated health, and depressive symptoms. We find that the experience of marital disruption damages health, with the effects still evident years later; among the currently married, those who have ever been divorced show worse health on all dimensions. Both the divorced and widowed who do not remarry show worse health than the currently married on all dimensions. Dimensions of health that seem to develop slowly, such as chronic conditions and mobility limitations, show strong effects of past marital disruption, whereas others, such as depressive symptoms, seem more sensitive to current marital status. Those who spent more years divorced or widowed show more chronic conditions and mobility limitations.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Bachman Jerald G, Wadsworth Katherine N, O’Malley Patrick M, Johnson Lloyd D, Schulenberg John E. Smoking, Drinking, and Drug Use in Young Adulthood. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum; 1997.
    1. Barrett Anne E. Marital Trajectories and Mental Health. Journal of Health and Social Behavior. 2000;41:451–464. - PubMed
    1. Benyamini Yael, Idler Ellen L, Leventhal Howard, Leventhal Elaine A. Positive Affect and Function as Influences on Self-Assessments of Health. Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences. 2000;55:107–115. - PubMed
    1. Brockmann Hilke, Klein Thomas. Love and Death in Germany: The Marital Biography and Its Impact on Mortality. Journal of Marriage and the Family. 2004;66:567–581.
    1. Bulatao RA, Anderson NB. Understanding Racial and Ethnic Differences in Health in Late Life: A Research Agenda. Washington, DC: National Academies Press; 2004. - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources