Marital transitions, marital beliefs, and mental health

In this paper; we examine whether people's beliefs about the permanence, de sirability, and importance of marriage moderate the impact of marital trans itions-including marital losses and gains-on depression, a disorder associa ted with both marital status and role transitions. Using two waves of panel data from the National Survey of Families and Households (N = 10,005), we find that a marital loss results in increased symptoms, whereas a marital g ain results in decreased symptoms. We also find, however, that the negative effects of a marital loss are greater for people who believe in the perman ence of marriage than they are for those who do not. Conversely, the positi ve effects of a marital gain are greater for people who believe in the desi rability anti importance of marriage than they are for those who do not. Ou r results highlight the potential utility of more systematically incorporat ing people's beliefs-and sociocultural factors more generally-into theory a nd research on the impact of stressors on mental health.