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Marital Status Transitions and Self-Reported Health among Canadians: A Life Course Perspective

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Abstract

This study focuses on the relationship between marital status transitions (the formation and dissolution of unions) and the self-reported health of adults in Canada. Empirical research has found that those in intimate unions generally enjoy better mental and physical health than the unattached and the dissolution of a union causes distress both for men and for women. Much remains to be understood about the effects of marital status transitions on health, especially from a life course perspective. This study poses the following research questions: do the number of marital status transitions and the kind of marital status transitions (from single to cohabitant; from single to married; from cohabitant to married and from married to divorce) affect health over time? Does difference between genders exist in this relationship? Data come from the nine cycles of the Canadian National Population Health Survey (1994–2011) and random-intercept logistic regression models are estimated to address these questions. Results do suggest that marital status transitions play a crucial role in determining health over time. Controlling for socio-demographic characteristics, marriage and cohabitation are associated with better physical and mental health, and depression symptoms are clearly stronger in cases of the dissolution of unions. Differences between genders are also evident.

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Notes

  1. Statistics Canada calculates the response rate of Cycle 1 on the 20,095 in-scope persons selected to form the longitudinal panel, while the response rate for subsequent cycles is based on the 17,276 individuals who form the longitudinal panel (Statistics Canada 2012a).

  2. Multilevel normal linear regression was used in the previous stage of this study, but the dichotomization of the dependent variables allowed to reach higher fit of the models.

  3. Since the variable “marital status” has four categories, all the possible transitions are 12 [4*(4–1)]. However, I am conscious that some of these combinations are not conceptually correct. For example it is not possible to be single after being married, as well as it is not possible to be “divorced” if the same individual was “single” in the previous cycle. In my analyses I do not consider these cases as marital status transitions.

  4. Sixteen models come from the three outcomes and four marital status transitions, separated by gender: 2[outcomes]*4[marital status transitions]*2[genders].

  5. Together with the likelihood, each model also indicates sigma_u and rho. They are the respective estimated residual standard deviation of the random intercept and the estimated residual intraclass correlation of the latent responses (Rabe-Hesketh and Skrondal 2008).

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Acknowledgments

The National Population Health Study was carried out by Statistics Canada. The author obtained access to the data through an agreement with the Research Data Centre of Statistics Canada in Lethbridge (affiliation of Calgary). Statistics Canada officials reviewed the analyses to ensure that confidentiality had not been breached and that the data were weighted properly to produce uniform estimates across reports. No other sponsor influenced the data analyses in any way.

Note: I thank the University of Lethbridge and the Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences (FORS) for giving me the opportunity to work on this project and I am grateful to the colleagues from these institutions for inspiring many of the ideas discussed in this article.

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  1. Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences (FORS) and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Sara Zella

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Zella, S. Marital Status Transitions and Self-Reported Health among Canadians: A Life Course Perspective. Applied Research Quality Life 12, 303–325 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-016-9462-y

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