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10/23/2017 Yuzu: Psychology of Gender: Fourth Edition
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FIGURE 11.4(a) College students estimated that they would be more likely to have a happy marriage than others, but the difference for males was greater than females. (b) College students also estimated that they would be less likely to get divorced than others, but this difference was greater for males than females. Source: Adapted from Lin and Raghubir (2005).
In addition, the traditional housewife role lacks status, structure, and recognition because “accomplishments” often go unnoticed (Gove & Tudor, 1973). Today, however, women are more likely to take on other roles besides housewife and are better equipped to take care of themselves financially. Thus women’s and men’s roles are now more similar in marriage. If the difference in roles is the explanation for why marriage is more health beneficial for men, we should see more similar effects of marriage on women’s and men’s health in the future. Selection Hypothesis. I have been discussing ways in which marriage could influence health, but it also is possible that health influences marriage. This is the marital selection hypothesis, the idea that healthier people are “selected” into marriage. Individuals tend to match in terms of health when they marry (Wilson, 2002). To examine the marital selection hypothesis, a longitudinal study must be conducted to determine whether initial health influences subsequent marital status and whether initial marital status influences subsequent health. One such study showed that persons who married over a six-year period started out less depressed than those who did not marry (Frech & Williams, 2007). Thus, psychological health predicted marital status. However, those who married benefited in terms of reduced psychological distress six years later compared to those who did not. Thus, there was a reciprocal relation between marriage and health.
TAKE HOME POINTS
The benefits of marriage to health are stronger for men than women. There are a number of reasons for this: Marriage is a greater source of emotional support, is more likely to alleviate stress, and encourages better health behavior for men than for women. In addition, men are more satisfied with marriage compared to women, partly due to the receipt of more social support resources. The relation between marriage and health is bidirectional. Healthier people are more likely to get married, and married people have better health over time.
EFFECT OF BEREAVEMENT ON HEALTH If marriage is good for health, presumably losing a spouse has negative effects on health. These negative effects could stem from the loss of resources that the deceased spouse provided as well as the general experience of bereavement. Determining the effects of bereavement on health is not easy. Two kinds of studies have been conducted to address this issue: cross-sectional and longitudinal. Cross-sectional studies evaluate people who are widowed at a single point in time. The advantage of this methodology is that large representative samples can be studied. There are three disadvantages. First, people are widowed for varying lengths of time, and the length of time since widowhood is bound to influence health. Second, the healthiest people are more likely to remarry after widowhood. Thus the people who remain widowed are not representative of all widowed people and may be more unhealthy than the widowed who have remarried. Third, causality cannot be inferred. In other words, we will not know if widowhood caused the decline in health or if unhealthy people were more likely to be widowed. At first glance, this latter possibility may seem unlikely. However, recall that people are attracted to similar others and marry people who are similar to themselves. One characteristic on which matching could occur is health. It is possible, then, that less healthy people are more likely to lose a spouse.
An important methodological issue to keep in mind when evaluating cross-sectional studies of the effect of widowhood on health is whether an appropriate comparison group of nonwidowed persons was used. This is especially important when evaluating sex differences in the effects of widowhood on health. Why? If widowed women and widowed men show equal health profiles, can we conclude that widowhood has the same effects on the health of women and men? No, because women and men who are not widowed differ in health. For example, married women are more depressed than married men. A study that shows no sex differences in depression among widowed women and men could imply that widowhood increased men’s distress levels to those of women or lowered women’s distress levels to those of men. In other words, widowhood could have very
10/23/2017 Yuzu: Psychology of Gender: Fourth Edition
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different effects on women’s and men’s distress. Let’s take another example. In general, men have higher suicide rates compared to women. A study that shows no sex differences in suicide rates among the widowed could imply that widowhood increased women’s suicide rates to those of men or decreased men’s suicide rates to those of women. The most appropriate comparison group to use in a study of widowhood is married women and men because both widowed and married people share the experience of having entered into marriage. It would not be appropriate to compare widowed persons to never-married persons because we know there are differences between the kinds of people who do and do not get married.
The second way to examine the effects of widowhood on health is to conduct a longitudinal study. Longitudinal studies typically examine people shortly after widowhood and then follow them over time to assess changes in their health. The disadvantage of this methodology is that we do not know people’s level of health before widowhood. The advantage, however, is that we know people’s initial health status immediately after widowhood so we can truly examine changes in health over time.
The ideal study of widowhood would use a prospective design in which people’s health