Mental health benefits of cohabitation and marriage: A longitudinal analysis of Norwegian register data

Kravdal, Øystein; Wörn, Jonathan; Reme, Bjørn‐Atle

doi:10.1080/00324728.2022.2063933

Cited by 17 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 91 publications

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“…[ 16 ] The conclusion in one such investigation from Germany was that mental health deteriorated for some years before the breakup and then improved, with small differences between the sexes (Leopold 2018). A similar conclusion was reached in studies of mental health in the United Kingdom (Blekesaune 2008;Tosi and van den Broek 2020) and Norway (Kravdal, Wörn, and Reme 2022), as well as in studies of sickness absence in Norway (with a somewhat more favorable development for men; Dahl, Hansen, and Vignes 2015) and life satisfaction in Germany (with the most adverse development for men; Andreß and Bröckel 2007). Also Soons, Liefbroer, and Kalmijn (2009) reported improvement in well-being with increasing time since the breakup.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 77%

“…For example, it is possible that certain job characteristics have implications both for health and the likelihood of dissolution (through availability of potential alternative partners or otherwise). Furthermore, reverse causality is not taken into account by the fixed‐effects approach (see simulations in Kravdal, Wörn, and Reme 2022): In principle, the observed development may partly reflect that health problems contribute to reduced relationship quality and dissolution. Also, no attempt is made to separate out the effect of the dissolution itself (given relationship quality), which is always difficult; the analysis only shows health changes across what may be referred to as a dissolution process, when effects of the concomitant age increase are taken into account.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is in line with the idea about dissolutions causing a temporary crisis. Also other studies have shown an immediate decline in mental health problems after the dissolution (Andreß and Bröckel 2007;Blekesaune 2008;Dahl, Hansen, and Vignes 2015;Kravdal, Wörn, and Reme 2022;Leopold 2018;Tosi and van den Broek 2020), or from a short period before divorce, which may coincide with the time of the actual dissolution (Metsä-Simola and Martikainen 2013), but there are also researchers who have observed an immediate worsening after a breakup, followed by a decline (Kalmijn 2017), or an adverse predissolution development and no subsequent decline (Johnson and Wu 2002). The apparently poorer mental health in the long run compared to some years before the breakup accords with an earlier study not including fixed effects (Metsä-Simola and Martikainen 2013).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It would help to expand the category to, for example, ≤–5 (see further discussion below), but one may doubt whether there actually is no trace of the coming dissolution in this period. We have therefore instead (as in corresponding analyses by Anusic, Yap, and Lucas [2014] and Kravdal, Wörn, and Reme [2022]) estimated model (1) from data also including families not experiencing dissolution. For them, all the D dummies were set to zero, and they only contribute to the estimation of the age effect, but it is a quite dominating contribution because of the large number of observations.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mental and Physical Health Trajectories of Norwegian Parents and Children before and after Union Dissolution

Kravdal¹,

Wörn²

2023

Population & Development Rev

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The aim was to examine the mental and physical health trajectories of mothers, fathers, and children before and after union dissolution. Register data covering the entire Norwegian population, and including information on consultations with general practitioners in 2006–2018, were used. Constant unobserved characteristics were controlled for with individual fixed effects. As judged by the number of consultations, mothers’ and fathers’ mental health deteriorates before the dissolution but improves immediately afterwards. In contrast, a worsening mental health among children before the dissolution is followed by an even more adverse development afterwards. There is only modest evidence of predissolution increases in noninfectious physical diseases, but more clearly rising numbers afterwards especially for mothers and daughters. Less adverse trends are seen for infections, although mothers experience a sharp temporary increase at the breakup time. On the whole, mothers’ health is more adversely affected by dissolution than that of fathers. Daughters may have a disadvantage compared to sons, but results vary across model specifications. The results suggest that effects on children's health do not operate through parents’ health. With respect to union type, the health changes before and after dissolution of a consensual union are not very different from those before and after marital separation.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 77%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Mental and Physical Health Trajectories of Norwegian Parents and Children before and after Union Dissolution

Kravdal¹,

Wörn²

2023

Population & Development Rev

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“…Individuals in happy relationships report higher levels of subjective well-being than those in unhappy relationships, regardless of relationship status [ 3 ]. It has also been found that people who are married or live in a marriage-like relationship are happier and enjoy better mental and physical health than those who are single [ 4 , 5 , 6 ]. One study has found that compared to those who were “very happy” in their marriage, those who were “not very happy” were more than twice as likely to report poorer health and almost 40% more likely to die over the follow-up period.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Measurement of Love: Psychometric Properties and Preliminary Findings of the Short Love Scale (SLS-12) in a Polish Sample

Kozakiewicz

Izdebski

Mazur

2022

IJERPH

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There has been a perceived need for the development of instruments to assess relationship quality and love. The aim of this study was to describe the psychometric properties of the Short Love Scale (SLS-12) and to compare different measurement models. Data were collected using the CAWI (Computer-Assisted Web Interview) in Poland in early 2022 (18–60 years old; n = 941) among individuals living in formal or informal monogamous relationships. Both exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory factor (CFA) analyses were performed on two different subsamples obtained through random splitting of the full datafile. There were 12 items considered, which form three dimensions in accordance with the theoretical basis. CFA analysis confirmed good psychometric properties of the three-factor SLS-12 model based on EFA solution: χ2(47) = 146.802 (p ˂ 0.001); χ2/df = 3.123; CFI = 0.981, TLI = 0.973, RMSEA = 0.067 (90%CI 0.055–0.080), GFI = 0.952, AGFI = 0.921. SLS-12 subindices varied according to gender and relationship status. Based on ROC curve method, it may be assumed that scores on the SLS-12 ranging from 12 to 44 indicate a poor relationship, scores ranging from 45 to 52 a moderately good relationship, and scores of 53 to 60 a very good relationship. Improving and increasing the range of measures of love available to researchers remains an important task in supporting the progress of this area of research. Further research should be conducted among people of all ages living in both formal and informal relationships using the Short Love Scale-12 outlined in this paper.

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Union Status and Disability Pension

Christiansen

Kravdal

2023

Eur J Population

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A lot is known about the association between marital status and mortality, and some of these studies have included data on cohabitation. Studies on the association with health problems, rather than mortality, are often based on self-reported health outcomes, and results from these studies are mixed. As cohabitation is now widespread, more studies that include data on cohabitation are needed. We use Norwegian register data that include detailed information about union status and all cases of disability pensioning from 2005 to 2016. We employ Cox regression analysis and a within-family design in order to control for hard to measure childhood characteristics. Compared to the married, the cohabiting have a somewhat higher risk of receiving disability pension due to mental disorders, and for men also due to physical disorders. Receipt of disability pension is most common among the never married, especially for men. The association between union status and disability pensioning is stronger for mental than for physical disorders.

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Mental health benefits of cohabitation and marriage: A longitudinal analysis of Norwegian register data

Cited by 17 publications

References 91 publications

Mental and Physical Health Trajectories of Norwegian Parents and Children before and after Union Dissolution

Mental and Physical Health Trajectories of Norwegian Parents and Children before and after Union Dissolution

The Measurement of Love: Psychometric Properties and Preliminary Findings of the Short Love Scale (SLS-12) in a Polish Sample

Union Status and Disability Pension

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