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
economic resources and mental health
generally increase post-marriage
social integration and support and mental health
provides social connectedness and obligation
sense of meaning and purpose and mental health
positively impacts sense of self
Transition of parenthood and parenting of young children
- Period of increased risk for negative mental health consequences
- Primarily for those who have an early transition to parenthood
- This can be affected by marriage stability, parental resources, and strain
- The meaning and salience of parenthood varies across social locations
parents of adult children
- Importance of quality of the relationship -> contributes to psychological well-being
- Adult children are a key resource for aging parents
- Parents that live with their adult children tend to have poorer psychological well-being, especially mothers
adults without children
- Increasing in prevalence
- The social pressures to have children have significantly declined
- Parents of young kids tend to be more depressed than their childless peers
- Parents of adult kids tend to be similar in mental health to their childless peers
cumulative effects of parenthood on psychological well-being
- Cumulative advantages and disadvantages
- Sustained impact of early challenges of parenthood (ex. several studies find that the early challenges of parenting can undermine parent’s well-being throughout the life course)
- Later life issues: the stressors of adult children with mental health challenges or chronic unemployment can negatively impact parental mental health
why do we study siblings?
- Frequency and duration of contact with siblings
- Usually frequent if children are living in the same household
- Tends to be a life-long relationship
- The developmental significance of siblings
- Close everyday contact and emotional intimacy can foster the understanding of social relationships
- Influence on mental health
- Dynamics and interactions between siblings
- Impacted by structural features (ex. Gender composition, age)
linking mental health and beahvioural characteristics of siblings
- Links between the mental and behavioural health characteristics of one sibling and those of the other
- Externalizing behaviour in one sibling is associated with externalizing behaviour in the other
Social learning theory
suggests that individuals learn new behaviours and develop attitudes and beliefs through reinforcement, observation, and the subsequent imitation of salient models, particularly models that are powerful, warm, and similar to themselves
how are siblings linked?
through genetics and shared social environments
sibling relationships and mental helath behaviour
- The quality of sibling relationships directly influences internalizing and externalizing behaviours
- Increases in sibling conflict are linked with increases in depression
- Hostility and violence in siblings are linked with the development of substance abuse and antisocial behaviours in siblings
compounding effects of sibling relationships on mental health
- There are unique and compounding effects of sibling relationships on mental health
- Sibling victimization has a significant effect on the other sibling’s mental health above and beyond the effect of parental-child maltreatment
- Sibling victimization can compound with parental mistreatment to worsen mental health
sibling as buffers
Positive sibling relationships can buffer the impact of negative influences on a child’s well-being
Mechanisms for the sibling-mental health relationship
- Reinforcement
- Personality development
- Modelling of positive and negative behaviours
- Exposure to health-related risks and resources
