Marital Stability

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MARITAL STABILITY


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Marriage, wages, job stability

married men are probably more likely thanunmarried men to encounter and internalize normslike working hard, obedience to superiors, andgetting ahead that make them better workers

(Gorman 1999). Married men work longer hours, work harder on the

job, have lower absenteeism from work, and are lesslikely to be fired than single men (Ahituv and Lerman2007; Bielby and Bielby 1988; Nock 1998; Waite andGallagher 2000).

Marriage might make men less likely to take jobsthat require geographic moves and the possibledisplacement of a spouse.


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layoffs or firings increase the risk of divorce,marriages raise wages and in turn increasemarital stability.

losing a job or changing jobs might createdislocations that ultimately dissolve a marriage.

Employers may decide to lay off the individual; apotential spouse may refuse to marry or aspouse may initiate a divorce.


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Job change can exert positive effects on wages,as workers shop for a better match and higher

wage growth. Alternatively, job change canlower wages if it involves a loss of specifichuman capital, productivity, and wages.Moreover, the expectation that workers willchange jobs frequently may reduce the incentiveof both workers and firms to invest in humancapital.


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The effects of job changes and wage rates onchanges in marital status likely depend on

whether the change involves getting married orstaying single, getting divorced or stayingmarried, or getting remarried or stayingdivorced.

Having high wage rates or a stable job mayincrease a mans willingness to share incomeand his attractiveness to a potential spouse,

while changing jobs may add to the uncertaintyof income flows.


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Getting or staying married may increase themans risk aversion and lead to less job change.

High wages raise mens attractiveness to womenand thus offer men more favorable choices ofwives.

While mens job loss and wage reductionsgenerally will lower the gains from marriage towomen, husbands with stable, high paying jobs

are likely to encourage more investment bywives in marriage-specific capital.


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High wage rates and job stability may influencethe initial entry into a marriage differently from

their impacts on marital dissolution orremarriage.

Frequent job movement by men may signal alow level of reliability, thus lowering theirattractiveness to wives and the quality of maritaloffers.

All the job market variables exert at least one

significant impact on marital status.


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Changing jobs reduces the likelihood that singlemen will marry in the following year, raises the

likelihood of divorce, and lowers the likelihoodof remarriage.

High wages in the prior year raise the likelihood

of men becoming and remaining married. Thewage impacts are large and significant forentering marriage and for becoming divorced orseparated.


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MARRIAGE AND WELL BEING


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Marriage-better off?

Married persons do have a significant social well-being advantage over non-married cohabitors.

Married adults report lower rates of mental illnessand higher rates of indicators of mental health thannever married and previously married adults.

Married adults in Norway report substantially higherlevels of avowed happiness and satisfaction withtheir lives than nonmarried adults (Mastekaasa

1994). Married adults are better off than nonmarried in

terms of physical health and subjective quality oflife.


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The benefits of marriage have been explainedvia its status as a structural form of social

support (e.g., House et al. 1988). Marriage represents a social contract that bonds

individuals together in an intimate relationshipthat can be stress-buffering and socially

integrative. Classic studies operationalized social support via

marriage (as well as civic and religiousparticipation), finding that married adults were

at reduced risk for premature mortality andphysical morbidity (e.g., cardiovascular disease)(see Stroebe and Stroebes 1995 review).


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Marriage purportedly confers social

integration to its participants,

providing them with a feeling of belongingand purpose (Waite and Gallagher 2000),

primarily through kin-based social networks. As such, marriage would be hypothesized to

promote an individuals sense of social well-

being.


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Larson (1996), the key to deciding whether a measure of socialwell-being is part of an individuals health is whether themeasure reflects internal responses to stimulifeelings,

thoughts and behaviors reflecting satisfaction or lack ofsatisfaction with the social environment (p. 186).

Generally speaking, individual-level social well-being can beconceptualized as having two facets: Social adjustment andsocial support (McDowell and Newell 1987).

Social adjustment refers to the subjective satisfaction withrelationships or the performance of social roles. Social supportrefers to the quality and number of persons whom an individualtrusts and can rely on, as well as the degree to which one isneeded and matters to others and society (see also Larson1993).

Thus, social well-being can be defined as an individualsappraisal of their social relationships, how others react tothem, and how they interact with social institutions andcommunity (Keyes 1998; Larson 1993).


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The strain/crisis hypothesis suggests that marital statusdifferences in social well-being stem from the strainsand concomitant network disruptions associated with

marital disruption.

Divorce is associated with the loss of joint (marital)social networks, which tend to be magnified by conflictsof loyalty (Kalmijn and Broese van Groenou 2005).

Marital disruption through divorce and widowhood hasalso been linked to economic distress for women inparticular, which may impact womens social

participationmany forms of social participation costmoney (Kalmijn and Broese van Groenou 2005;Umberson et al. 1992).


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Mastekaasa (1992) found that subjective well-beingand life satisfaction predicted the probability of

eventual marriage among Norwegians.

Moreover, early life experiences which may beassociated with social well-being have been shownto affect the probability of marriage and divorce.

For example, Davies et al. (1997) found that many

divorced women in their study reported a history ofdepression and problematic relations with theirfamily of origin.


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In more developed Western societies, a long-standing research stream shows that individuals

more involved in social support systems amongfamily, friends, peers, and others, are morehealthy, live longer, have greater lifesatisfaction, and have less need for long-term

institutional care than persons without suchsocial support systems (Berkman & Syme, 1979;Cohen & Syme, 1985; Durkheim, 1951; House,

Robbins & Metzner, 1982; Seeman, Kaplan,Knudsen, Cohen & Guralnik, 1987; Steinbach,1992).


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Widowhood, which involves the loss of one ofthe closest personal relationships (spouse), has a

key impact on social networks, especially amongolder persons.

Empirical evidence from more developed

Western societies shows that married personshave better health and lower mortalitycompared with the never married, widowed, ordivorced, even accounting for the tendency ofless healthy persons to be less likely to enter intomarriage or to remain married (Lillard & Waite,1995; Waldron, Hughes, & Brooks, 1996).


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In general, marital status affects health throughpathways of (a) socioeconomic status and (b) socialties associated with actual social support. Regardingthe former, married persons often have greateraccess to resources (often due to multiple incomes)and economies of scale, which may bolster healthierlifestyles and use of health care (Waite & Gallagher,

2000; Wyke & Ford, 1992).

Regarding the latter, the increased social supportnetwork deriving from marriage includes the benefitof socialization and nurturing from spouses andchildren (Berkman & Glass, 2000; House, Umberson,& Landis, 1998).


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Both increased resources and enhanced socialnetworks buffer stressful eventsa key role

played by social support in promoting health. Marital dissolution increases the risk for mental

and physical health prob- lems, some of whichemerge only among women who hadharmonious marriages.


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Gender issues figure prominently in therelationship between marital status and health

outcomes (review in Reidy, Ofstedal, & Knodel,2002). Men and women benefit differentiallyfrom marriage in terms of socioeconomic status,social ties and support, and health outcomes.

In Western societies, too, womens history oflower participation in paid work, interruptedwork trajectories, occupational segregation, and

lower wages has led to a socioeconomic statusthat is, on average, lower than mens (Hardy &Hazelrigg, 1993; Meyer, 1990).


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Thus, through marriage, women benefit fromaccess to mens socioeconomic resources. On

the other hand, caring, nurturing, and kin-keeping roles are traditionally the province ofwomen.

Thus, through marriage, men benefit fromthe enhanced nurturing, social ties, andsupport networks that women maintain(Goldscheider, 1990). Following maritaldisruption, womens socioeconomic statusdeclines, and mens social networks diminish.


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Marriage and Economic Well

Being

divorce does not have negative economicconsequences. However, for most womenexperiencing marital disruption, previous

research suggests that improvements ineconomic well-being happened throughremarriage (Bianchi and McArthur 1991; Duncanand Hoffman 1985b).

Kniesner et al. (1988) found that most firstepisodes of poverty for female-headedhouseholds were associated with a change infamily structure.


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Besides marital status, numerous other factors havebeen found to be related to poverty dynamics.

Both Cox (1997) and Stevens (1995, 1999) foundthat the effects of a number of other covariates onthe poverty dynamic differed by race and ethnicity.

Other factors found to be associated with poverty

exits and (re)entry, in the direction that would beexpected, included various human capital measures,such as years of education and employmentexperience, labor market conditions, age of thewoman, presence of preschool age children, urbanresidence, and a non-marital birth (Bane andEllwood 1986; Cox 1997; Kniesner et al. 1988;Stevens 1999).


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The first theoretical model suggested by researcherswas based on the concepts of human capital, economicindependence, and income effects.

The model suggests that as womens human capitalincreases, their employment prospects improve, and inturn their earning potential increases, such thatmarriage is not as necessary for economic support aswhen their human capital was lower. This perspectivewould suggest that women with less education andearning potential would be more reliant on marriage foreconomic support, while women with better economicprospects based on their human capital or access to

resources outside marriage would be moreeconomically independent (Cherlin 1992; Espenshade1985; Goode 1956; Preston and Richards 1975; Ross andSawhill 1975).


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Subsequently, another theoretical approach tounderstanding marital status and poor womenfocused on marriage markets. This perspective

suggests that persons who have greater earningpotential and employment are more attractive topotential mates and, therefore, are more likely tomarry (Becker 1981; Oppenheimer 1997).

Empirical research suggests that women withgreater economic potential are more likely to marryand to remarry than women who are economicallydisadvantaged (McLaughlin and Lichter 1997;Oppenheimer and Lewin 1999; Smock 1990). While

women with low economic potential may beperceived as less attractive as mates, these womenmay also face a shortage of marriageable men(Wilson 1987).


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In addition, those men who are available to poorwomen may not be economically attractive in thatthey are more likely to have unstable employment

and unstable or low earnings (Lichter et al. 1992). Thus, marrying, remarrying, or remaining married

may not be the solution to improving some low-income womens economic circumstances.

Our results indicate that marriage formation ishelpful in getting mothers out of poverty, andreduces the odds that they would reenter poverty,suggesting that public policies that encouragehealthy marriage would improve the economiccircumstances of women with children who are inpersistent or intermittent poverty spells.


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Even though marriage formation appears to beimportant to the economic well-being of young

women with children, the different magnitudeof the relationship between ending a marriageand poverty exit and reentry needs to be

considered. The results indicate that ending a marriage

increases the chances of both getting out ofpoverty and getting back into poverty, but thechance of the latter is greater than the former.


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Promoting healthy marriage as a solution?

Marital Stability

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