Content area
Full Text
This study examines gender and marital status differences in psychological well-being across an extensive array of measures using data from a sample of non-Hispanic, White, midlife adult participants in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, 1992-1993 (N = 6,876). Evidence for how selection and social causation might account for differences also is evaluated. Multivariate analyses reveal several gender interactions, usually indicating a greater disadvantage for unmarried men than for unmarried women. Separate analyses by gender show a complex picture of both positive and negative effects of being single. Contrary to what the selection argument hypothesizes, single women have higher scores on relatively enduring personality characteristics associated with better psychological well-being than married women. Single men do not compare so favorably with married men. Overall, selection does not account for marital status differences in well-being. Household income and having a kin confidant mediate some of the remaining effects.
Key Words: gender, marital status, midlife, personality, psychological well-being.
Historically, researchers have found that married men and women report better psychological wellbeing than their unmarried peers (e.g., Gove, Hughes, & Style, 1983; Gove & Shin, 1989; Gove, Style, & Hughes, 1990; Lee, Seccombe, & Shehan, 1991). Yet despite a significant lengthening of life expectancy during this century for both men and women, younger birth cohorts of American adults are spending proportionately less of their adult lives married. This is due to historical trends toward a later age at marriage, a higher rate of nonmarriage, a higher rate of divorce, and a lower rate of remarriage (Schoen, Urton, Woodrow, & Baj, 1985). Larger proportions of younger birth cohorts are now more likely to be single (never married, divorced, or widowed) during their midlife and older years. Uhlenberg, Cooney, and Boyd (1990) project that almost one third of White women in the 1955-1959 birth cohort will be unmarried at midlife between the ages of 50 and 54, and one half will be unmarried when they enter young old age between 65 and 69.
If marriage is associated with better mental health, do these demographic trends portend a proliferation of mental health problems in our future aging society? Or is there any additional evidence that might indicate that as adult single life becomes more common, it is also becoming less disadvantaged or at...