The Long-Term Health Implications of Marital Disruption: Divorce, Work Limits, and Social Security Disability Benefits Among Men

Abstract

We provide new evidence on the long-term impact of divorce on work disability among U.S. men. Using data from the 2004 Survey of Income and Program Participation linked to U.S. Social Security Administration records, we assess the relationship between divorce and subsequent self-reports of work limitations and the receipt of federal disability benefits. The examination of self-reports and administrative records of medically qualified benefits provides dual confirmation of key relationships. We compare men who experienced a marital dissolution between 1975 and 1984 with continuously married men for 20 years following divorce using fixed-effects and propensity score matching models, and choose a sample to help control for selection into divorce. On average, we find that divorce is not associated with an increased probability of self-reported work limitations or receipt of disability benefits over the long run. However, among those who do not remarry, we do find that divorce increases men's long-term probability of both self-reported work limitations and federal disability benefit receipt. Lack of marital resources may drive this relationship. Alternative estimates that do not control for selection into divorce demonstrate that selection bias can substantially alter findings regarding the relationship between marital status changes and subsequent health.

Educational Variations in Cohort Trends in the Black-White Earnings Gap Among Men: Evidence From Administrative Earnings Data

“…Although we fail to construct administrative linkages for some SIPP respondents, the match rate is high (80% for 2004 SIPP and 90% for 2008 SIPP). Following prior published work using these data (Couch et al 2015;Villarreal and Tamborini 2018), we adjust the SIPP person-weights for nonmatches to maintain the national representativeness of the sample. We do this by estimating a logistic regression of a successful match across a range of characteristics.…”

The Effects of Union Dissolution on the Economic Resources of Men and Women: A Comparative Analysis of Germany and the United States, 1985–2013

“…δ is a vector of parameters associated with the matrix of categorical time variables T it . Couch et al (2013); Couch, Tamborini, and Reznik (2015); and Tamborini, Couch, and Reznik (2015) use this formulation to assess outcomes related to family dissolution.…”

“…Here, we make use of comparison groups of intact families in panel fixed-effect models to control for both observed and unobserved influences on relationship dissolution. This approach has recently been used to examine labor market responses and long-term health impacts following relationship dissolutions (Couch et al 2013; Couch, Tamborini, and Reznik 2015; Tamborini, Couch, and Reznik 2015; Tamborini, Reznik, and Couch 2016).…”

Divorce, Repartnering, and Stepfamilies: A Decade in Review

“…Supporting a marital resource interpretation, however, a recent fixed effects analysis of survey and administrative data in the United States finds that divorce has long‐term effects on work disability for men who do not remarry. These negative consequences did not appear until 20 years after divorce (Couch, Tamborini, & Reznik, ). These findings suggest that it is premature to rule out the marital resource model.…”