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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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The significance of nonmarital cohabitation
— marital status and mental health benefits among middle-aged and older adults | | Author(s) | Susan L Brown, Jennifer Roebuck Bulanda, Gary R Lee |
| Journal title | Journals of Gerontology: Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, vol 60B, no 1, January 2005 |
| Pages | pp S21-S29 |
| Source | http://www.geron.org |
| Keywords | Middle aged ; Age groups [elderly] ; Personal relationships ; Living patterns ; Marital status ; Mental health [elderly] ; Social surveys ; United States of America. |
| Annotation | According to the 2000 US Census, about 1.2 million people aged 50+ are currently cohabiting. Do these unmarried cohabiting partnerships provide adults with mental health benefits that are similar to those enjoyed by marrieds? The authors extend previous work on marital status and depression, by including cohabitation in their conceptualisation of survival rates. Data for 18,598 subjects aged 50+ from the 1998 US Health and Retirement Study (HRS) were used to examine the relationship between marital status and depressive symptoms, also any gender differences. On average, it was found that cohabitees report more depressive symptoms than to marrieds, net of economic resources, social support and physical health. Additional analyses revealed that only among men do cohabitees report significantly higher depressive 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 for married men. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-050505213 A |
| Classmark | SE: BB: DS: K7: SLM: D: 3F: 7T |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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