From the Smart Marriages listserv, here are news articles about Iowa State University study, "The Short-Term and Decade-Long Effects of Divorce on Women's Midlife Health," by Fred Lorenz, K.A.S. Wickrama, Rand Conger and Glen Elder, published in summer of 2006 in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.
- STUDY ON EFFECTS OF DIVORCE ON WOMEN
(I'm sharing two versions of this study, short take on radio.com and longer
AP article. I like this clip:
> The study, titled "The Short-Term and Decade-Long Effects of Divorce on
> Women's Midlife Health," was published last summer in the Journal of Health
> and Social Behavior. The research was part of an ISU study of romantic
> relationships and marriage in middle-aged adults that began in 1989 in an
> eight-county area.
>
> Linda Waite, who co-authored the book "The Case for Marriage: Why Married
> People Are Happier, Healthier, and Better Off Financially," said many studies
> have shown that when women are divorced or widowed they see a decline in
> economic well-being, but the long-term effects of the stress of divorce on
> health is important new research.
>
> She said it can help friends, family, and the legal and medical communities
> become aware "that divorce often creates a cascade of negative experiences and
> events for the families involved, with increased need for help, intervention
> and support."
>
- STUDY SHOWS DIVORCE HAS A LONG-TERM IMPACT ON WOMEN
RadioIowa.com (here
Oct 31, 2006
Lorenz says it's not just an attitude thing -- life was harder for the
divorced women. The divorced women had more "negative life events" happen --
having kids get in trouble, a hard time keeping a job...divorced women had a
higher incidence of that kind of thing happening to them, and that
contributed to their feelings of distress ten years later.
Lorenz says the researchers then had another set of groups to compare,
divorced women who remained single, and those who remarried. The women who
remarried had better financial circumstances, and in that way the quality of
their lives improved. Still, it wasn't a cure-all and their health wasn't as
good a decade later as the women who'd never been divorced. Lorenz says
that's probably because the rural women who got divorced had trouble finding
jobs good enough to give them consistent healthcare coverage, and went
without care for at least some of the time in their lives.
The study will continue for at least another eight years, and the research
group recently got a big federal grant. He hopes to go back one more time to
the original parents in the study as they approach retirement age, and find
out how they're coping with the end of their careers and adjusting to
retirement, so they can link those answers to the events that happened to
the people earlier in their lives.
"We're approaching twenty years," Lorenz reflects. The kids in the study are
almost as old as the parents were when it began, and the parents are getting
old. He adds the researchers are about the same age as the parents, and
notes that for him at least, the end of the study will be a retirement
project.
--------------------------------
- STUDY: DIVORCED WOMEN HAVE MORE ILLNESS
Associated Press
October 31, 2006
Associated Press/AP Online
DES MOINES, Iowa - Women may give up more than a husband by divorcing - they
may also lose some of their good health, according to a study by Iowa State
University.
The study, spanning 10 years, focused on what happens to rural women's
health after their marriage ends, compared with women who stay married, said
Fred Lorenz, who co-authored the report.
"What we found was that the act of getting a divorce produced no immediate
effects on (physical) health, but it did have effects on mental health,"
Lorenz said. "Ten years later, those effects on mental health led to effects
in physical health."
The findings came from data gathered from rural Iowa women who were
interviewed three times in the early 1990s, and again in 2001. All 416 women
interviewed were the mothers of adolescent children when the study began.
Among them, 102 women were recently divorced.
During the years immediately after divorce - from 1991 to 1994 - the
divorced women reported 7 percent higher levels of psychological distress
than married women. They did not report any differences in physical illness
at that time.
A decade later, however, the divorced women reported 37 percent more
physical illness, but no difference in psychological stress that could be
directly linked to the divorce, said Lorenz, who co-authored the study with
K.A.S. Wickrama, Rand Conger and Glen Elder. The research was conducted out
of the Institute for Social and Behavioral Research based at Iowa State.
The women in the study marked off illnesses from a list of 46 choices -
ranging from the common cold and sore throat to heart conditions and cancer.
Lorenz said it appears there is a link between the higher number of physical
illnesses and the different stresses associated with divorce, including
financial problems, demotions, layoffs and parenting problems. He added that
divorced women, especially in rural areas, have poor job opportunities and
fewer support systems.
Wickrama said the women also suffer stress from having to make changes in
housing, insurance, transportation and time with children.
"It looks like (divorced women) are trapped in this vicious circle of
financial problems and other stressful life events ..." he said in a
statement.
Lorenz said divorced women in rural areas may not have jobs that offer
quality health care, and they may put off going to the doctor for preventive
care because of financial constraints.
The researchers adjusted the data for age, remarriage, education, income and
prior health.
By 2001, 40 of the divorced women had remarried or were living with a
partner, and the study found positive influences on the women's health,
Wickrama said.
"We found that divorced individuals who remarried indirectly decreased the
risk of health problems because they saw beneficial influences on their
financial difficulties," he said.
The study, titled "The Short-Term and Decade-Long Effects of Divorce on
Women's Midlife Health," was published last summer in the Journal of Health
and Social Behavior. The research was part of an ISU study of romantic
relationships and marriage in middle-aged adults that began in 1989 in an
eight-county area.
Linda Waite, who co-authored the book "The Case for Marriage: Why Married
People Are Happier, Healthier, and Better Off Financially," said many
studies have shown that when women are divorced or widowed they see a
decline in economic well-being, but the long-term effects of the stress of
divorce on health is important new research.
She said it can help friends, family, and the legal and medical communities
become aware "that divorce often creates a cascade of negative experiences
and events for the families involved, with increased need for help,
intervention and support."
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