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10/23/2017 Yuzu: Psychology of Gender: Fourth Edition

https://reader.yuzu.com/#/books/9781317345046/cfi/6/40!/4/2/162/2@0:2.22 1/2

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distinct in terms of other parameters from the already widowed. Because widowhood can be a longer process for some people, the events leading up to widowhood may take their toll on health.

TAKE HOME POINTS

There are a number of methodological difficulties when studying the effects of widowhood on health: An appropriate comparison group must be selected as women and men have different health prior to widowhood. The most appropriate group is married people, as both married and widowed people have selected into marriage. Cross-sectional studies, while easy to conduct, pose several difficulties, including the inability to determine causation, the fact that the healthiest people might have remarried, and the varying time frames since widowhood.

Studies generally show that widowhood is associated with greater adverse effects on men’s than women’s health across an array of health indicators. Reasons for this sex difference have to do with the different strains men and women face and the greater loss of support that a spouse’s death poses for men compared to women.

EFFECT OF RELATIONSHIP DISSOLUTION ON HEALTH Evidence clearly suggests that marriage is associated with greater health benefits for men than for women and that the loss of marriage through widowhood is associated with greater harm to men’s than women’s health. Can we conclude that the breakup of marriage or other significant relationships has more adverse effects on men’s than women’s health? The answer is not as clear.

Relationship Breakup There is some evidence that women adjust better than men to the breakup of dating relationships (Choo, Levine, & Hatfield, 1996). In a study of long-distance college student dating relationships, women adjusted better than men to the breakup (Helgeson, 1994a). Just over 100 students were enrolled in the study at the beginning of the school year and were followed for one semester. At the end of the semester, 36% of the couples had broken up. As shown in Figure 11.6, at the beginning of the study, when the couples were together (Time 1), women were more distressed than men. At the end of the semester, when a third of the couples had broken up (Time 2), there was no sex difference in distress among people who had broken up, but women were more distressed than men when the relationship still existed. An alternative way of viewing these findings is that men who broke up became more distressed, whereas women who broke up became less distressed. Women also reported better adjustment to the breakup than men did.

FIGURE 11.6At the beginning of the semester, when relationships were intact (Time 1), women were more distressed than men. By the end of the semester, when a third of couples had broken up (Time 2), women’s distress levels did not significantly differ from those of men. This is because women were more distressed than men among couples who remained

10/23/2017 Yuzu: Psychology of Gender: Fourth Edition

https://reader.yuzu.com/#/books/9781317345046/cfi/6/40!/4/2/162/2@0:2.22 2/2

together but were less distressed than men among couples who had broken up. Women’s distress level decreased following breakup, whereas men’s distress level increased following breakup. Source: V. S. Helgeson (1994). Long distance romantic relationships: Sex differences in adjustment and breakup. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20, 254–265.

In terms of the breakup of marital relationships, findings are contradictory. One indicator that women may adjust better to the breakup of a marriage is that women are less likely than men to remarry after divorce. In 2001, 55% of men compared to 44% of women who had divorced were currently remarried (U.S. Census Bureau, 2005). However, the research findings are not clear as to whether one sex suffers more than the other following separation and divorce. Three studies showed that people who were separated/divorced had worse health than married people but the effects were stronger for women than men—in terms of mortality from heart disease (Molloy et al., 2009) and self-reported health (Lindstrom, 2009; Liu & Umberson, 2008). However, two others studies showed stronger adverse effects of separation/divorce on men than women—in terms of mortality (Sbarra & Nietert, 2009) and psychological distress (Hope, Rodgers, & Power, 1999). An older cross-cultural study (United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Germany, Taiwan, Korea, Lebanon, France, and New Zealand) showed that separated and divorced individuals were two to four times more likely to have major depression than married individuals, but the difference was greater for men than women in all of the countries except Canada and Taiwan (Weissman et al., 1996).

There are a number of factors that might influence the sex difference in response to separation and divorce. One is the presence of children. If there are no children, women suffer fewer ill effects of separation and divorce (Elliott & Umberson, 2004). When children are involved, strains associated with raising children alone arise. Thus, income and parenthood are important moderators of the effects of divorce on women and men.

Explanations Strains. Separation and divorce are associated with a number of strains, including the change in roles that accompanies divorce, single parenthood if children are involved, and the potential for conflict with an ex-spouse (Whisman, Weinstock, & Tolejko, 2006). These strains may differ for women and men. Relationship dissolution may be associated with greater social strains for men and greater economic strains for women. Marital dissolution results in a loss of men’s primary confidant. For women, the economic strain associated with marital dissolution is especially large if they retain custody of children. Even in cohabiting relationships, the economic strains associated with relationship dissolution are greater for women than men. One study showed that men’s income declined by 10%, whereas women’s declined by 33% after the relationships dissolved (Avellar & Smock, 2005). In that study, the greater strains for women partly had to do with the presence of children.

If differential strains experienced by women and men following separation/divorce explain the effects of relationship dissolution on health, one would expect the dissolution of traditional marriages to have stronger negative effects on women and men than the dissolution of egalitarian marriages.