Purpose of the Study: Our study provides a national portrait of the Baby Boom generation, paying particular attention to the heterogeneity among unmarried Boomers and whether it operates similarly among women versus men. Design and Methods: We used the 1980, 1990, and 2000 Census 5% samples and the 2009 American Community Survey (ACS) to document…

National average happiness and the difference in happiness between women and men are positively correlated in European countries. This study focuses on this cross-country relationship and tests (1) whether, after controlling for socio-economic factors, the correlation is attributed to their direct relationship, or, alternatively, explained by the…

Purpose: As part of an ongoing effort to analyze the distributional implications of potential policy reforms to the U.S. Social Security system, we consider the widely discussed reform of earnings sharing. Such an approach has been viewed as a way to "update" Social Security's family benefits based on marital status and as a means to…

The purpose of our study is to assess the influence of socio-demographic factors on overall and cause-specific mortality of elderly people of Parma aged 65. In particular, the paper aims at exploring the relation between mortality and living arrangement in association with marital status. Data were obtained from the General Registry Office of…

Using nationwide, 7-year population-based data for 1997-2003, we examined marital status to see if it predicted suicide among the ethnic Chinese population of Taiwan. Using cause of death data, with a case-control design, two groups--total adult suicide deaths, n = 17,850, the study group, and adult deaths other than suicide, n = 71,400 (randomly…

Recent studies linking marital status and health increasingly focus on marital trajectories to examine the relationship from a life course perspective. However, research has been slow to bridge the theoretical concept of a marital trajectory with its measurement. This study uses retrospective and prospective data to model the age-dependent effects…

This investigation examined the indirect influence of past educational attainment on current feelings of loneliness across a sample of unmarried older adults. Participants in this study included 227 community-dwelling individuals, age 65 to 94, who were never-married, divorced, or widowed. The developmental adaptation model (Martin & Martin,…

Examined data from national stratified probability sample in which divorced and widowed, particularly divorced and widowed men, were oversampled. Compared to married and, to lesser extent never married, psychological well-being of divorced and widowed was poor. Psychological well-being of divorced males, divorced females, and widowed females was…

Interviewed 132 older women and found that widows and married women had comparable number of primary friends. Being over age 74 influenced size of friendship network for widows but not for marrieds. Primary friendships of both groups paralleled each other in terms of endurance and stability. Compared to married women, widows did rely on confidant…

Examined economic consequences of widowhood for both men and women over time and compared their financial well-being to that of a matched group of continuously married couples. The findings of this longitudinal study indicated that the loss of a spouse had negative economic consequences for both widows and widowers relative to continuously married…

Data from an extensive survey of the entire adult population of one rural Norwegian county indicate that married persons had the highest level of subjective well-being, followed by widowed persons. Among the formerly married, cohabitation was associated with substantially higher levels of well-being, but the importance of cohabitation depended on…

Used longitudinal data to assess effects of marriage, divorce, and widowhood on immediate relocation and on subsequent mobility patterns. Results demonstrated substantial impact of changes in marital status on mobility. Mobility rates were highest among newly married, almost as high in years of separation or divorce, and very low in first year of…

Assessed effects of widowhood, divorce, and lifelong singleness on income and evaluations of finances at two points, and investigated factors associated with satisfaction with level of living in old age. Analysis of data from two interviews with 2,047 older adults revealed that marital status affected economic circumstances and perceptions of…

Studies morbidity and disability rates of nonmarried, married, and formerly married people using age-adjusted data from federal health surveys in 1960 and 1970. In the noninstitutional population, divorced and separated people have the worst health status. Widowed people rank second, followed by single people; married people appear healthiest.…

Compared 21 widowed mothers, 21 divorced mothers, and 21 married mothers on material, personal, family, and social well-being. Found that, compared with married mothers, divorced mothers revealed consistently lower levels of economic well-being, widowed mothers tended to have lower levels of personal well-being. Discusses implications for…