Mental and Physical Health Effects on Divorced People Divorce causes Emotional and PHYSICAL ILLNESS ... (via Billy)

• What's Marriage Got to Do With It? by Glenn Stanton. Comprehensive, well-footnoted summary of Health and longevity effects of marriage and divorce on men, women and children
• How Divorce Hurts Children and Adults, by Glenn T. Stanton
• Marriage is good for women -- N.Y. Post editorial on Linda Waite study
• Summary of Linda Waite study
• Being a Single Parent is a health Risk
• Marriage Benefits the Elderly
• Marriage adds years to your life
• Marriage for a healthy lifestyle
• Ties between men's longetivity, marriage, and "hands-on fathering" Article -- (11/23/98)
• Marriage Improves Health
• Marriage Good for Australian Men's Health
• Love provides good health
• Divorced Men more likely to commit suicide

See Lee Lillard and Linda Waite, "Til Death Do Us Part: Marital Disruptions and Mortality," American Journal of Sociology. Vol.1 (1995), pp. 1131-1156.

"Divorced adults are more susceptible to severe emotional and psychological problems, plus early death from an assortment of causes, than for married individuals. The suicide rate for divorced white men, for example, is four times higher than for their married counterparts. The situation for divorced adults is such that Harold Morowitz of Yale University contends, 'Being divorced and a non-smoker is slightly less dangerous than smoking a pack or more a day and staying married.'"
Quoted in Bryce J. Christensen, "In Sickness and in Health: The Medical Costs of Family Meltdown," Policy Review, Spring 1992, p. 71. Cited in Brian Willats, Breaking Up is Easy To Do, available from Michigan Family Forum.

"Adults and children are at increased risk for mental and physical
problems due to marital distress (e.g., Cherlin & Furstenberg, 1994;
Coie et al. 1993; Coyne, Kahn, & Gotlib, 1987; Cowan & Cowan, 1992;
Fincham, Grych, & Osborne, 1993).

"Married men and women in all age groups are less likely to be limited in
activity (a general health indice) due to illness than single,
separated, divorced, or widowed individuals (National Center for Health
Statistics, 1997)."
-- From a September 25, 1998 posting on the Smart Marriages Archive, probably by Scott Stanley

Divorced men and women suffer to a much greater degree than married persons early death from cancer, cardiovascular disease, strokes, pneumonia, hypertension, and suicide. According to researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health, "The single most powerful predictor of stress-related physical, as well as emotional, illness is marital disruption."'
Brian Willats, Breaking Up is Easy To Do, available from Michigan Family Forum. citing B.M. Rosen, H.F. Goldsmith, and R.W. Rednick, Demographic and Social Indicators from the U.S. Census of Population and Housing: Uses for Mental Health Planning in Small Areas (Rockville, MD: National Institute of Mental Health, 1977). Cited in Susan Larson and David Larson, M.D., M.S.P.H., "Divorce: A Hazard to Your Health?" Physician, May/June 1990, p. 14.

"Divorced adults, particularly divorced men, experience early health problems to a much greater extent than married individuals. Premature death rates for divorced men double that of married men from such causes as cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and strokes. The premature death rate from pneumonia is seven times larger for divorced men than for married men. ... The suicide rate for divorced white men was four times higher than for their married counterparts."
Brian Willats, Breaking Up is Easy To Do, available from Michigan Family Forum. citing J.J. Lynch, The Broken Heart: The Medical Consequences of Loneliness (New York: Basic Books, 1977). Cited in Susan Larson and David Larson, M.D., M.S.P.H., "Divorce: A Hazard to Your Health?" Physician, May/June 1990, p. 14.

"Divorced or separated men undergo inpatient or outpatient psychiatric care at a rate of 10 times more than married men; divorced or separated women's usage of such care increased fivefold."
Brian Willats, Breaking Up is Easy To Do, available from Michigan Family Forum. citing B.R. Bloom, S.W. White, and S.J. Asher, "Marital Disruption as a Stressful Life Event," Divorce and Separation: Context, Causes and Consequences (New York: Basic Books, 1979). Cited in Susan Larson and David Larson, M.D., M.S.P.H., "Divorce: A Hazard to Your Health?" Physician, May/June 1990, p. 14.

General Happiness

Marriage is good for women -- N.Y. Post editorial on Linda Waite study
What's Marriage Got to Do With It? by Glenn Stanton. Comprehensive, well-footnoted summary of Health and longevity effects of marriage and divorce on men, women and children
Divorce equals higher levels of unhappiness

"The proportion of married Americans that are not happy with their marriage has not changed, but the [proportion] that are happy has dropped sharply from more than half to less than two-fifths."
The Abolition of Marriage, by Maggie Gallagher page 107, citing Norvall Glenn, "The Social and Cultural Meaning of Marriage," in The Retreat from Marriage, Bryce Christensen, ed.

"The proportion of kids that are living with unhappily married parents has not changed, but the proportion of kids living with happily married parents has fell from what was in the seventies a majority, is now at 40%."
The Abolition of Marriage, by Maggie Gallagher page 107, citing Norvall Glenn, "The Re-Evaluation of Family Change by American Social Scientists" (1994), Figures 1 and 2.

Religious Involvement
Divorce lowers the likelihood of remaining involved in communities of faith for all religious groups studied. However, this was least pronounced for conservative Protestants. Lawton, L. E., & Bures, R. (2001). Parental Divorce and the "Switching" of Religious Identity. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 40, 99-111. Synopsis by Scott Stanley, on the Smart Marriages Archive 2/25/02, modified.

Other Effects on Divorced People
Effects on Children and Other Statistics

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