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A review of the antecedents of union dissolution

“…Being diagnosed with cancer has not been found to affect the risk of divorce, with the exception of cervical and testicular cancers, which were shown to increase the risk (Syse and Kravdal 2007). Differences in health status between spouses have been found to increase divorce risk even for couples who otherwise find their relationship satisfying (Wilson and Waddoups 2002). Although speculation exists in the literature about the effects of the death of a child on marriage dissolution (Najman et al 1993), reviews have concluded that there is no available study that offers a reliable evaluation of the divorce risk among bereaved parents (Oliver 1999;Schwab 1998).…”

Higher well-being with similar partner? Testing the similarity hypothesis for socio-demographic characteristics

“…Both studies concern divorce and ethnically mixed marriages, but the argument can be generalized to other characteristics. Increased divorce risks have been found when partners are different from each other with regard to several characteristics: ethnicity or immigrant status (Bratter and King 2008;Dribe andLundh 2012), age (Clarkwes, 2007;Tzeng 1992), education (Clarkwest 2007;Tzeng 1992), church attendance (Lehrer and Chiswick 1993), and health (Wilson and Waddoups 2002).…”

Psychiatric morbidity and subsequent divorce: a couple-level register-based study in Finland

“…Social exchange theory suggests that the probability of divorce increases when the factors binding the partners together are weak, the attractiveness of the partner decreases, or other alternatives seem more appealing than staying in the relationship [26]. The attractiveness of a partner may decline when he or she falls ill, and illness of either partner may also lead to increased divorce risk by causing economic strain [27].…”

“…Theoretically this implies that the mechanisms linking psychiatric morbidity to increased risk of divorce are different from the mechanisms linking socio-economic disadvantage to higher divorce risk. Thus the link from psychiatric morbidity to increased divorce risk is rather explained by relationship quality and satisfaction than by economic hardship associated with socioeconomic factors [26,27], suggesting that support measures for married individuals with psychiatric morbidity should also focus on couple-level dynamics.…”

“…The health mismatch hypothesis suggests that the expected gains of remaining in the union decline for the healthy spouse when the other spouse is in poor health [26]. However, because couples with two spouses both experiencing psychiatric morbidity have higher risk of divorce than couples with only one affected spouse, it seems that psychiatric morbidity of the partner may encourage individuals to seek other alternatives even when they suffer psychiatric morbidity themselves.…”