The significance of nonmarital cohabitation: Marital status and mental health benefits among middle-aged and older adults
The significance of nonmarital cohabitation: Marital status and mental health benefits among middle-aged and older adults
复制标题
DOI：
10.1093/geronb/60.1.s21
复制
发表时间：
2005-01-01
影响因子：
6.2
通讯作者：
Lee, GR
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Brown, SL;Bulanda, JR;Lee, GR
目标。根据2000年的人口普查，目前约有120万50岁以上的人同居。这些未婚同居关系是否为成年人提供了与已婚人士相似的心理健康益处？我们通过将同居纳入婚姻状况的概念来扩展先前的工作对婚姻状况和抑郁的影响。我们使用1998年健康与退休研究（N = 18.598）的数据来检验50岁以上成年人的婚姻状况与抑郁症状之间的关系。我们还研究了这种关联的性别差异。我们发现同居者报告的抑郁症状更多。平均。婚姻也是如此。经济资源网，社会支持网。还有身体健康。另外的分析显示，只有男性的同居者报告的抑郁得分明显更高。同居的已婚女性和同居的男性都有相似的抑郁程度，所有这些群体的抑郁程度都明显高于已婚男性。我们的研究结果表明，在50岁及以上的人群中，考虑非传统生活安排的重要性。与女性相比，同居对男性的抑郁症状影响更大。
Objectives. According to the 2000 Census, about 1.2 million persons over age 50 are currently cohabiting. Do these unmarried cohabiting partnerships provide adults with mental health benefits that are similar to those enjoyed by marrieds? We extended prior work oil marital status and depression by including cohabitation in our conceptualization of marital status.Methods. We used data from the 1998 Health and Retirement Study (N = 18.598) to examine the relationship between marital status and depressive symptoms among adults over age 50. We also examined gender differences in this association.Results. We found that cohabitors report more depressive symptoms. on average. than do marrieds. net of economic resources, social Support. and physical health. Additional analyses revealed that only among men do cohabitors report significantly higher depression scores. Cohabiting and married women as well as cohabiting men experience similar levels of depression, and all of these groups report levels that are significantly higher than married men's.Discussion. Our findings demonstrate the importance of accounting for nontraditional living arrangements among persons aged 50 and older. cohabitation appears to be more consequential for men's than women's depressive symptoms.