Ima. Joung et al., THE CONTRIBUTION OF INTERMEDIARY FACTORS TO MARITAL-STATUS DIFFERENCES IN SELF-REPORTED HEALTH, Journal of marriage and the family, 59(2), 1997, pp. 476-490
The aim of this study is to estimate the relative contributions of psy
chosocial conditions, material circumstances, and health behaviors to
differences in physical and mental health by marital status. Data on 3
,510 Dutch persons who were part of the GLOBE study, aged 25-74 years,
are used. Multiple logistic regression models show that never-married
, divorced, and widowed men have higher morbidity rates than married m
en. For women, the health differences are almost solely due to excess
morbidity among divorced women. We found that psychosocial conditions
contributed most to the explanation of morbidity differences among men
(25%-50%), but material circumstances contributed most among women (5
0%-100%).