Mare BV's List: Sociology of Marriage and Family

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.