Research on the relationship between cohabitation and mental health tends to ignore social psychological factors that help explain mental health differences between the married and the unmarried, including coping resources and perceived relationship quality. In this paper I draw on social psychological theory and research to clarify differences in depression and alcohol use between married and cohabiting individuals. Using data from the National Survey of Families and Households, I examine the independent and combined influences of socioeconomic status, coping resources, and relationship quality to account for marital status differences in distress. I find that marital status differences in coping resources and relationship quality help explain the gap in depression, but not in alcohol use, between married and cohabiting individuals. I also find that social selection is not responsible for marital status differences in distress. The implications of these findings for future research on cohabitors' mental health are discussed.

In this paper; we examine whether people 8 beliefs about the permanence, desirability, and importance of marriage moderate the impact of marital transitions-including marital losses and gains-on depression, a disorder associated with both marital status and role transitions. Using two waves ofpanel data from the National Survey ofFamilies and Households (N = 10,005), we find that a marital loss results in increased symptoms, whereas a marital gain results in decreased symptoms. We also find, however; that the negative effects of a marital loss are greater for people who believe in the permanence of marriage than they are for those who do not. Conversely, the positive effects of a marital gain are greater for people who believe in the desirability and importance of marriage than they are for those who do not. Our results highlight the potential utility of more systematically incorporatingpeople 8 beliefs-and sociocultural factors more generalb-into theory and research on the impact of stressors on mental health. While stress researchers have acknowledged manence of marriage than they are for those the potential importance of people's beliefs who do not hold these beliefs. We also argue about social roles-and sociocultural factors that the positive emotional effects of a marital more generally-for explaining variation in gain are greater for persons who believe in the the impact of role transitions on mental health, desirability and importance of marriage than assessments of individuals' beliefs and empirthey are for those who do not have these ical tests of their significance are extremely beliefs. limited. In this paper, we use panel data from a large nationally representative sample of adults to examine whether people's beliefs BACKGROUND about, the permanence, desirability, and importance of marriage moderate the impact of mar-Although life events scholars have concepital transitions, including marital losses and tualized role transitions as a major source of gains, on depression. We propose that the negstress which result in psychological disorder, a ative psychological effects of a marital loss are large body of empirical research documents greater for individuals who believe in the perconsiderable variation in the mental health effects of these eventful stressors. Epidemio-*We gratefully acknowledge Scott Eliason, logical studies consistently show that even cul-Jennifer Glass, Rita Noonan, Leonard Pearlin, turally undesirable life events-such as sepa-Brian Powell, Robin Stryker, and Peggy Thoits for ration or divorce-do not always have adverse their insightful comments on earlier drafts of this emotional consequences for individuals, and paper. We also thank John Mirowsky and the that there is only a modest association between anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions. exposure to stressful life events and psycho-This research was supported by a University of Iowa Obermann Center for Advanced Studies logical or psychiatric disorder (Aneshensel Spellman-Rockefeller (CASSPR) Grant to Robin 1992; Thoits...

Social psychological approaches to mental health often emphasize the link between social roles and psychological distress. Idenity theorists, in particular, explain distress in terms of the meanings that roles hold for individuals. This research draws from sociological and psychological models of self and identity to explain how distress arises from discrepancies that occur among aspirations, obligations, and perceptions of role-identities. It also examines the role of self-esteem as both an outcome of identity discrepancies and a buffer in the relationship between identity discrepancy and distress. The results of this study indicate that although discrepancies related to aspirations tend to be associated with lower levels of depression and higher self-esteem, obligation-related identity discrepancies do not predict distress or self-evaluation. As expected, individuals with lower levels of self-esteem suffer more from aspiration-related discrepancies than do individuals with higher levels of self-esteem; however, individuals with higher self-esteem are more reactive to obligation discrepancies. The implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.

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