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Effect of Divorce on Stress and Illness
New NIH Grant
Divorce Increases Chronic
Stress, Later Illness in Women According to ISU Study
(10.27.06)
 Contacts:
- Fred Lorenz, Institute for Social and Behavioral Research, (515)
294-7487, (515) 294-8196, (515) 294-8314, folorenz@iastate.edu
- K.A.S. Wickrama, Human Development & Family Studies, (515) 294-4704, ,
s2kas@iastate.edu
- Mike Ferlazzo, News Service, (515) 294-8986, ferlazzo@iastate.edu
AMES, Iowa -- There's a popular belief among spouses in bad marriages
that divorce might relieve their stress and lead to a happier life. But
divorce actually increased chronic stress and produced greater physical
illness over a 10-year span, according to a study of 416 rural Iowa women by
researchers from Iowa State University's Institute for Social and Behavioral
Research.
Fred Lorenz, K.A.S. Wickrama, Rand Conger and Glen Elder produced the
latest paper on their research titled "The Short-Term and Decade-Long
Effects of Divorce on Women's Midlife Health," which was published last
summer in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, a professional journal.
"What we found was that the act of getting a divorce produced no
immediate effects on health, but it did have effects on mental health," said
Lorenz. "Ten years later, those effects on mental health led to effects in
physical health."
The researchers have been studying romantic relationships and marriage in
middle-aged adults through Iowa Youth and Family Project and Midlife
Transition Projects -- an ISU study of more than 500 young adults from an
eight-county area northwest of Ames that began in 1989. The team just
received a $2.5 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of
Health to continue the study of romantic relationships and marriage in young
adults, and the link of relationship development to changes in physical and
emotional health.
The
methodology
In this study, they used data from rural Iowa women who were interviewed
repeatedly in the early 1990s when they were mothers of adolescent children.
Of the 416 women, 102 were recently divorced mothers. The women were
interviewed again in 2001.
The researchers found that in the years immediately after their divorce
(1991-94), divorced women reported seven percent higher levels of
psychological distress than married women, but no differences in physical
illness. The increased distress among the recently divorced women was found
after controlling for other sources of stress, including income, which was
only about half ($20,300) the amount reported by married women ($41,400). An
important factor linking divorce to later psychological distress was the
experience of stressful life events, according to Lorenz.
A decade later (2001), the divorced women reported 37 percent more
illness when compared to their married counterparts -- even after the
researchers controlled for age, remarriage, education, income and prior
health. Lorenz believes that other conditions associated with divorce --
perhaps social isolation and relatively poor job opportunities -- are
important in explaining why divorced women report more illnesses a decade
after their divorce.
"According to the data, it looks like they (divorced women) are trapped
in this vicious circle of financial problems and other stressful life events
-- such as having their safety net destroyed in the form of housing,
insurance, transportation, social support, sharing in the kids, etc.," said
Wickrama. "There are more than 100 events documented in the event history
calendar, including such things as demotions, layoffs, accidents, critical
illness, and parental problems."
Types
of illness
The researchers documented 46 illnesses for the women in this study to
choose from -- ranging from the common cold and sore throats, to heart
conditions, diabetes and cancer. The severity of these illnesses appears to
be linked to the quality of the marriage before the divorce.
"Among married couples, we predicted couples with good quality marriages
did not experience early onset of hypertension, while those with bad
marriages were more likely to have experienced onset of early hypertension,"
said Wickrama. "In 1997, we wrote one article that related marriage
qualities and physical illness. We showed change in marriage quality links
to change in physical illness for both men and women."
Forty of the divorced women in the sample either remarried or cohabitated
with a partner. Remarriage was found to have a positive influence on family
income, eventually improving health outcomes.
"We found that divorced individuals who remarried indirectly decreased
the risk of health problems because they saw beneficial influences on their
financial difficulties," Wickrama said. "Consistently divorced people
continued to experience higher level of economic and health problems."
The researchers wrote in a related paper that women's self-reports of
earlier deviant behavior -- which included adolescent delinquency -- rivaled
divorce as a predictor of stressful events and depressive symptoms,
suggesting that deviant behavior earlier in life may be influencing both the
likelihood of future divorce and future physical and emotional health
problems. They are planning future research that prospectively links
childhood experiences to adult physical and mental health.
"Comprehensive panel studies that examine multiple health outcomes over
time are still few in number, and more are needed if the health consequences
of divorce are to be more completely understood," they wrote.
Researchers Receive $2.5 Million NIH Grant to Continue
Relationships and
Health Study (10-05-06)
Contacts:
- Fred Lorenz, Institute for Social and Behavioral Research, (515) 294-7487,
folorenz@iastate.edu
- Kandauda Wickrama, Institute for Social and Behavioral Research, (515)
294-6316, s2kas@iastate.edu
- Rand Conger, Institute for Social and Behavioral Research, (530) 757-8450,
rdconger@ucdavis.edu
- Mike Ferlazzo, News Service, (515) 294-8986, ferlazzo@iastate.edu
AMES, Iowa -- The phrase "love sick" has been popular for years, but can love
-- particularly love gone bad -- really make you sick?
That's what a team of four researchers from Iowa State University's Institute
for Social and Behavioral Research will investigate after receiving a $2.5
million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The ISU
researchers will study the change in the development of romantic relationships
and marriage in young adults, and the link of relationship development to
changes in physical and emotional health.
Researchers Fred Lorenz, Kandauda Wickrama, Rand Conger and Rebecca Burzette
are conducting the study, titled "Relationship Development and Health in Young
Adults."
Continuing Family Transitions Project
The project will provide a rare inside view at romantic relationships and
marriage in young adults through an extension of the Family Transitions Project
-- an ISU study of more than 500 young adults from an eight-county area of Iowa
that began in 1989. The targeted area was selected because it mirrored
demographics from across the Midwest. The study initially collected data from a
sample of Iowa parents and children, who were in the seventh grade when it
began. The children are now young adults who are nearly 30 years of age, with
many of them married and with children of their own.
The initial purpose of the project was to study family adaptation to economic
hardship, which was represented in Iowa by the financial "farm crisis" of the
late 1980s. They studied the reasons why there are more divorces and more
adolescents with emotional and behavioral problems under conditions of economic
hardship, but not problems among all families with these conditions.
The researchers have been videotaping family members interacting with each
other over the duration of this study, since past studies have found that
individuals are poor reporters of their own behaviors. As the adolescent
children have grown into adults, the overall focus has shifted away from
economic issues to the transmission of parenting practices from parents to their
children, behavioral disorders, and relationship quality.
The previous findings
Their previous research has led to four books -- the latest being "Continuity
and Change in Family Relations: Theory, Methods and Empirical Findings"
(Lawrence Erlbaum, 2004) -- and more than 100 research papers published in
professional journals. Some of their past research included the following
findings, among others:
- A combination of recent stressful events and more chronic adversities will
combine to undermine adaptive interactions in romantic relationships.
- Children who were recipients of nurturing and involved parents when they
were adolescents expressed more warmth and lower hostility toward their dating
partners.
- A change in marital quality has long-term consequences for physical
health.
"The distinctive strength of this study is that it contains multiple waves of
data from now three generations within a family," said Lorenz. "Some of the kids
will soon be as old as their parents were when we first began this study.
"In this latest study, we are seeking health outcomes from marriage," he
said. "Do people who have supportive spouses and relationship partners have
better health, or is it the health that determines the success of the
relationship? When you have 20 years of data like this, you can examine that."
Goals of the latest research
The researchers believe that adolescents' experiences in their families of
origin are important in shaping early adult romantic relationships, and that the
success or failure of their romantic relationships are tied to changes in
physical and emotional health. They are specifically focusing on the following
topics in this study:
- Timing of marriage. The researchers are examining the effects of
characteristics in the family of origin, personal attributes, and other life
experiences on the timing of relationship initiation and the transitions to
marriage and cohabitation.
- Intergenerational transmission of relationship quality and patterns of
interaction. They are studying intergenerational pathways -- such as personal
attributes and diverse life experiences -- that are expected to link
characteristics of the family of origin to the quality and stability of adult
romantic relationships.
- Relationship quality and health. They're examining mutual influences
between the successes or failures of relationship characteristics -- such as
patterns of interaction, relationship quality and stability -- and their
relationship with the physical and emotional health of romantic partners.
They plan to complete this latest round of research in 2011.
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