Divorce -- Mental
and Physical Health Effects on Divorced People
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- Marriage
and Children's Health and Longevity
- What's Marriage Got to Do With It?
by Glenn Stanton. Comprehensive, well-footnoted summary of Health and longevity
effects of marriage and divorce on men, women and children
- How Divorce Hurts Children and Adults,
by Glenn T. Stanton
- Marriage
is good for women -- N.Y. Post editorial on Linda Waite study x
- Summary of Linda
Waite study
- Being a Single Parent is a health Risk
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Benefits the Elderly x
- Marriage adds years to your life
- Marriage for a healthy lifestyle
- Ties between men's longetivity, marriage,
and "hands-on fathering" Article -- (11/23/98)
- Marriage Improves Health
- Marriage Good for Australian Men's Health
- Love provides good health
Divorced Men more likely to commit suicide
Joan R. Kahn and Kathryn A. London, "Premarital Sex and the Risk of
Divorce," Journal of Marriage and the Family 53 (1991): 845-855.
Cf. Ingrid Waldron, Christopher C. Weiss, and Mary Elizabeth Hughes, "marital
Status Effects on Health: Are There Differences Between Never-Married Women
and Divorced and Separated Women?" Social Science & Medicine
45 (1997): 1387-1397
I.M.A. Joung et al., "Health Behaviors Explain Part of the Difference
in Self-Reported Health Associated with Partner/Marital States in the Netherlands,"
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 49 (1995): 482-488
Peggy A. Thoits, "Gender and Marital Status Difference in Control and
Distress: Common Stress versus Unique Stress Explanations," Journal
of Health and Social Behavior 28 (1987): 7-22
Janet Wilmoth and Gregor Koso, "does Marital History Matter? Marital
Status and Wealth Outcomes Among Preretirement Adults," Journal
of Marriage and Family 64 (2002): 254-268
Karen F. Parker and Tracy Johns, "Urban Disadvantage and Types of Race-Specific
Homicide: Assessing the Diversity in Family Structures in the Urban Context,"
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 39 (2002): 277-303.
See Lee Lillard and Linda Waite, "Til Death Do Us Part: Marital Disruptions
and Mortality," American Journal of Sociology. Vol.1 (1995), pp. 1131-1156.
A book by E. Mavis Heatherington indicates that 20 years after divorce,
only 20 percent of individuals indicated that their lives had improved,
while in 70 percent of cases, the individuals were in the same or worse
emotional and social condition. [Gallagher, Maggie. (2002) Third Thoughts
on Divorce. National Review v54 i5 p50. Retrieved June 9, 2004 from
Expanded Academic ASAP.]
"Divorced adults are more susceptible to severe emotional and psychological
problems, plus early death from an assortment of causes, than for married
individuals. The suicide rate for divorced white men, for example, is four
times higher than for their married counterparts. The situation for divorced
adults is such that Harold Morowitz of Yale University contends, 'Being
divorced and a non-smoker is slightly less dangerous than smoking a pack
or more a day and staying married.'"
Quoted in Bryce J. Christensen, "In Sickness and in Health: The Medical
Costs of Family Meltdown," Policy Review, Spring 1992, p. 71. Cited
in Brian Willats, Breaking Up is Easy To Do, available from Michigan Family
Forum.
"Adults and children are at increased risk for mental and physical
problems due to marital distress (e.g., Cherlin & Furstenberg, 1994;
Coie et al. 1993; Coyne, Kahn, & Gotlib, 1987; Cowan & Cowan, 1992;
Fincham, Grych, & Osborne, 1993).
"Married men and women in all age groups are less likely to be limited
in
activity (a general health indice) due to illness than single,
separated, divorced, or widowed individuals (National Center for Health
Statistics, 1997)."
-- From a September 25, 1998 posting on the Smart
Marriages Archive, probably by Scott Stanley
Divorced men and women suffer to a much greater degree than married persons
early death from cancer, cardiovascular disease, strokes, pneumonia, hypertension,
and suicide. According to researchers at the National Institute of Mental
Health, "The single most powerful predictor of stress-related physical,
as well as emotional, illness is marital disruption."'
Brian Willats,
Breaking Up is Easy To Do, available from Michigan Family Forum. citing
B.M. Rosen, H.F. Goldsmith, and R.W. Rednick, Demographic and Social Indicators
from the U.S. Census of Population and Housing: Uses for Mental Health Planning
in Small Areas (Rockville, MD: National Institute of Mental Health, 1977).
Cited in Susan Larson and David Larson, M.D., M.S.P.H., "Divorce: A
Hazard to Your Health?" Physician, May/June 1990, p. 14.
"Divorced adults, particularly divorced men, experience early health
problems to a much greater extent than married individuals. Premature death
rates for divorced men double that of married men from such causes as cardiovascular
disease, hypertension, and strokes. The premature death rate from pneumonia
is seven times larger for divorced men than for married men. ... The suicide
rate for divorced white men was four times higher than for their married
counterparts."
Brian Willats,
Breaking Up is Easy To Do, available from Michigan Family Forum. citing
J.J. Lynch, The Broken Heart: The Medical Consequences of Loneliness (New
York: Basic Books, 1977). Cited in Susan Larson and David Larson, M.D.,
M.S.P.H., "Divorce: A Hazard to Your Health?" Physician, May/June
1990, p. 14.
"Divorced or separated men undergo inpatient or outpatient psychiatric
care at a rate of 10 times more than married men; divorced or separated
women's usage of such care increased fivefold."
Brian Willats,
Breaking Up is Easy To Do, available from Michigan Family Forum. citing
B.R. Bloom, S.W. White, and S.J. Asher, "Marital Disruption as a Stressful
Life Event," Divorce and Separation: Context, Causes and Consequences
(New York: Basic Books, 1979). Cited in Susan Larson and David Larson, M.D.,
M.S.P.H., "Divorce: A Hazard to Your Health?" Physician, May/June
1990, p. 14.
General Happiness
Marriage
is good for women -- N.Y. Post editorial on Linda Waite study
What's Marriage Got to Do With It? by
Glenn Stanton. Comprehensive, well-footnoted summary of Health and longevity
effects of marriage and divorce on men, women and children
Divorce equals higher levels of unhappiness
"The proportion of married Americans that are not happy with their
marriage has not changed, but the [proportion] that are happy has dropped
sharply from more than half to less than two-fifths."
The Abolition of Marriage, by Maggie Gallagher
page 107, citing Norvall Glenn, "The Social and Cultural Meaning
of Marriage," in The Retreat from Marriage, Bryce Christensen, ed.
"The proportion of kids that are living with unhappily married parents
has not changed, but the proportion of kids living with happily married
parents has fell from what was in the seventies a majority, is now at 40%."
The Abolition of Marriage, by Maggie Gallagher
page 107, citing Norvall Glenn, "The Re-Evaluation of Family Change
by American Social Scientists" (1994), Figures 1 and 2.
Religious Involvement
Divorce lowers the likelihood of remaining involved in communities of faith
for all religious groups studied. However, this was least pronounced for
conservative Protestants. Lawton, L. E., & Bures, R. (2001). Parental
Divorce and the "Switching" of Religious Identity. Journal for
the Scientific Study of Religion, 40, 99-111. Synopsis by Scott Stanley,
on the Smart Marriages Archive
2/25/02, modified.
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