Marital Biography and Health at Mid-Life
2009/09/01 by Mary Elizabeth Hughes, Linda J. Waite · 558 citations
Health Professions · Medicine · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Cognition #Damages #Demography #Depressive symptoms #Developmental psychology #Gerontology #Global Health Care Issues #Health and Retirement Study #Health disparities and outcomes #Intergenerational Family Dynamics and Caregiving #Life course approach #Marital status #Medicine #Political science #Population #Psychiatry #Psychology #Sociology
paper · open access · doi:10.1177/002214650905000307
published in Journal of Health and Social Behavior 50(3), 344-358 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2009/09/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
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.
Citations
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