Marital Status and Mental Health: The Role of Marital Dissolution as a Social Stressor

• In Event: 598 - Section on Sociology of Mental Health Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 07. Stress and Coping

Abstract

Among social scientists, the general consensus is that marriage provides substantial benefits to mental health. As such, marital dissolution has become widely viewed by scholars as a distinct social stressor. It is thought that marital dissolution—through divorce or widowhood—may lead to changes in an individual’s social environment and societal roles, and in turn, may have a detrimental effect on health. Despite the body of previous literature that emphasizes the importance of marriage for mental health, recent evidence suggests a more nuanced perspective. In order to account for both the individual and contextual factors that influence the relationship between martial status and mental health, the present study utilizes data from a panel study of Miami-Dade County residents and empirically examines the relationship between marital dissolution and mental health, with a specific focus on how the length of time since martial dissolution impacts psychological well-being. Drawing on the stress process model, this research seeks to assess the role of marital status as a social stressor and empirically adjudicate between two dominant theoretical explanations of the relationship between marital status and health: the marital resource model and the marital crisis model.

Author

• Allison Reilly McGrath, Vanderbilt University