Lecture 12: Marriage & Family Flashcards
Previous Research
There are 3 “facts” that frame the relationship between marriage and mental health
3 “facts” that frame the relationship between marriage and mental health
- Marriage is beneficial
- Men benefit more from marriage than women
- Parenthood is detrimental to mental health
Structural strain (social-structural) perspective
- Argues that your position in the social structure determines the amount of constraints, demands, and opportunities that you may have
- Marriage and family define the social environment in key ways that affect mental health
- Attributes gender differences in the family-mental health relationship to women’s greater role and obligation within marriage and family that may undermine the value of the martial environment for their mental health
martial resource model
- Argues that marriage provides individuals, and men in particular, with a range of benefits that enhance their psychological well-being
- Mainly through access to social and economic support
- Married men make more than single men
stress model
Links marriage to mental health through stressors that might arise in the context of marriage or its dissolution
selection model
People who have better mental health are more likely to be married, which may be why we see better psychological functioning in married people
theoretical frameworks for understanding mariage & family and mental health
- structural strain perspective
- marital resource model
- stress model
- seleciton model
entry into marriage and mental health
- Getting married is associated with a boost in psychological well-being, as well as decline in psychological stress
- This is mainly due to an increase in beneficial resources
- Longitudinal studies suggest that mental health enhancing benefits of marriage begin to accrue prior to marriage, especially as more people are cohabiting before marriage
honeymoon effect
the mental health boost of marriage tends to last for about 3 years
widowhood and mental health
- Associated with declines in psychological well-being
- Consistently stronger for men than for women
divorce and mental health
- Associated with declines in psychological well-being
- No consistent gender differences
mental health benefits of entering a marriage vs. exiting a marriage
- The costs of mental health of exiting marriage are substantially stronger than the mental health benefits of entering marriage
- The quality of the marriage also matters; leaving a bad marriage can have a positive effect on mental health
remarriage and mental health
- Benefit to mental health in the short-term
- Most studies indicate stronger benefits for men
cohabitation and mental health
- Has consequences for mental health
- Cohabitation has fewer mental health benefits compared to marriage and singlehood
- Differences in relationship quality and union stability may explain the mental health link between marriage and cohabitation
mechanisms linking marital status to mental health
- economic resourecs
- social integration and support
- sense of meaning and purpose