An Empirical Test of Crisis, Social Selection, and Role Explanations of the Relationship Between Marital Disruption and Psychological Distress: A Pooled Time‐Series Analysis of Four‐Wave Panel Data

Abstract

Although a higher level of psychological distress has been found in many studies of divorced compared with married individuals, explanations for this difference remain elusive. Three basic theoretical explanations have been proposed. Social role theory maintains that the role of being divorced is inherently more stressful than that of being married; crisis theory attributes the higher stress to role transitions and transient stressors of the disruption process, and social selection theory claims that the higher stress levels among the divorced result from the selection of people with poor mental health into divorce. Some empirical support is available for each of these approaches, but all three have not been tested simultaneously in a longitudinal study. This research empirically evaluates the efficacy of these theories in a pooled time-series analysis of a four-wave panel of married persons followed over 12 years. The pooledtime series random effects model was used to es-

Vulnerability Following a Critical Life Event: Temporary Crisis or Chronic Distress? A Psychological Controversy, Methodological Considerations, and Empirical Evidence

“…This result stands in contrast to many findings, according to which men would have a more difficult time after a marital breakup and exhibit less improvement over time (Baum 2003;Hetherington 1993;Wallerstein and Lewis 2004). As we already pointed out, the effect of gender has been discussed in a very controversial way in literature, since some of the studies found no gender differences (Kim and McKenry 2002;Johnson and Wu 2002), whereas others found either women or men to be more affected (Simon 2002). Due to the fact that men are underrepresented in this study, it could be that the most vulnerable are those that are missing.…”

“…The author concludes that some individuals may not be able to adapt completely. Another longitudinal study over 12 years (Johnson and Wu 2002) found, consistent with the chronic state approach, that the level of psychological distress during and after the divorce does not decline until the individuals enter into a new marriage or cohabiting relationship. In contrast, the results of the study of Clark et al (2008), which are based on observations in 20 waves of German panel data, show a rapid adaptation to divorce.…”

Subjective well-being in European countries—on the age-specific impact of physical activity

“…The latter has the largest (and negative) effect [34]. In the case of divorce, it is found that SWB reduces more for females than for males [7] but that those who remarry recover their initial levels of SWB [26]. However, the direct effects of gender are rarely discussed.…”

Associations Between Lone Motherhood and Depression: A Co-twin Control Study

“…Research has also found non-random genetic selection into phenotypes (i.e. observable characteristics) such as divorce (Johnson and Wu 2001;Simon 2002). An additional concern is that of potential geneenvironment correlation.…”