“To Divorce Is to Die a Bit…”: A Longitudinal Study of Marital Disruption and Psychological Distress Among Swedish Women and Men

The Family Journal

Volumn 14, Issue 4, 2006, Pages 372-382

  Gähler, Michael ^a  

^a STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY   (Sweden)

Author keywords

divorce; longitudinal data; psychological distress; Sweden

Indexed keywords

EID: 33748052352     PISSN: 10664807     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/1066480706290145     Document Type: Article

References (62)

1. Acock, A. C., & Demo, D. H. (1994). Family diversity and well-being. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
2. Bernhardt, E. (1995, June). Repartnering in contemporary Sweden: A study of the transition to second partnership. Paper presented at the1995 Conference of the Scandinavian Sociological Association, Helsinki, Finland.
3. Bird, C. E. (1997). Gender differences in the social and economic burdens of parenting and psychological distress. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 59, 809-823.
4. Bloom, B. L., White, S. W., & Asher, S. J. (1979). Marital disruption as a stressful life event. In G. Levinger & O. C. Moles (Eds.), Divorce and separation. Context, causes, and consequences (pp. 184-200). New York: Basic Books.
5. Booth, A., & Amato, P. (1991). Divorce and psychological stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 32, 396-407.
6. Cherlin, A. J. (1992). Marriage, divorce, remarriage. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
7. Cobb, S. (1976). Social support as a moderator of life stress. Psychosomatic Medicine, 38, 300-314.
8. Cohen, P., Johnson, J., Lewis, S. A., & Brook, J. S. (1990). Single parenthood and employment. Double jeopardy? In J. Eckenrode & S. Gore (Eds.), Stress between work and family (pp. 117-132). New York: Plenum.
9. Doherty, W. J., Su, S., & Needle, R. (1989). Marital disruption and psychological well-being. Journal of Family Issues, 10, 72-85.
10. Dohrenwend, B. S., Krasnoff, L., Askenasy, A. R., & Dohrenwend, B. P. (1978). Exemplification of a method for scaling life events: The PERI Life Events Scale. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 19, 205-229.
11. Flood, L., & Gråsjö, U. (1997). Tid för barn, tid för arbete. En undersökning av svenska hushålls tidsanvändning [Time for children, time for work. A study of time use in Swedish households]. In G. Ahrne & I. Persson (Eds.), Familj, makt och jämställdhet (pp. 159-188). Stockholm: Fritzes.
12. Frankenhaeuser, M. (1993). Kvinnligt, manligt, stressigt [Female, male, stressful]. Höganäs, Sweden: Wiken.
13. Fritzell, J., Gähler, M., & Lundberg, O. (2001). Att studera välfärdsförändringar [To study changes in welfare]. In J. Fritzell, M. Gähler, & O. Lundberg (Eds.), Välfärd och arbete i arbetslöshetens årtionde (pp. 9-29). Stockholm: Fritzes.
14. Gähler, M. (1998). Life after divorce. Economic, social and psychological wellbeing among swedish adults and children following family dissolution(Dissertation series 32). Stockholm: Swedish Institute for Social Research.
15. Gähler, M. (2001). Bara en mor—ensamstående mödrars ekonomiska levnadsvillkor i 1990-talets Sverige [Just a mother-The economic living conditions of Swedish single mothers during the 1990s]. In Å. Bergmark (Ed.), Ofärd i välfärden (pp. 15-99). Stockholm: Fritzes.
16. Gerstel, N., Riessman, C. K., & Rosenfield, S. (1985). Explaining the symptomatology of separated and divorced women and men: The role of material conditions and social networks. Social Forces, 64, 84-101.
17. Gove, W. R. (1972). The relationship between sex roles, marital status, and mental illness. Social Forces, 51, 34-44.
18. Gove, W. R., Hughes, M., & Briggs Style, C. (1983). Does marriage have positive effects on the psychological well-being of the individual? Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24, 122-131.
19. Gove, W. R., & Shin, H.-C. (1989). The psychological well-being of divorced and widowed men and women. Journal of Family Issues, 10, 122-144.
20. Gunnarsson, L., & Cochran, M. (1990). The social networks of single parents: Sweden and the United States. In M. Cochran, M. Larner, D. Riley, L. Gunnarsson, & C. R. Henderson, Jr. (Eds.), Extending families. The social networks of parents and their children (pp. 105-116). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
21. Hemström, Ö. (1996). Is marriage dissolution linked to differences in mortality risks for men and women? Journal of Marriage and the Family, 58, 366-378.
22. Holden, K. C., & Smock, P. J. (1991). The economic costs of marital dissolution: Why do women bear a disproportionate cost? Annual Review of Sociology, 17, 51-78.
23. Holmes, T. H., & Rahe, R. H. (1967). The social readjustment scale. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 17, 213-218.
24. Hughes, M. (1989). Parenthood and psychological well-being among the formerly married. Are children the primary source of psychological distress? Journal of Family Issues, 10, 463-481.
25. Johnson, D. R., & Wu, J. (2002). An empirical test of crisis, social selecetion, and role explanations of the relationship between marital disruption and psychological distress: A pooled time-series analysis of four-wave panel data. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 64, 211-224.
26. Jonsson, J. O., & Mills, C. (2001). The Swedish Level-of-Living Surveys: A general overview and description of the event history data. In J. O. Jonsson & C. Mills (Eds.), Cradle to grave. Life-course change in modern Sweden (pp. 228-242). Durham, UK: Sociologypress.
27. Kelly, J. B. (1989). How adults react to divorce. In J. M. Henslin (Ed.), Marriage and family in a changing society (pp. 427-440). New York: Free Press.
28. Kitson, G. C., Benson Babri, K., Roach, M. J., & Placidi, K. S. (1989). Adjustment to widowhood and divorce. A review. Journal of Family Issues, 10, 5-32.
29. Kitson, G. C., & Morgan, L. A. (1990). The multiple consequences of divorce: A decade review. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 52, 913-924.
30. Kurdek, L. A. (1990). Divorce history and self-reported psychological distress in husbands and wives. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 52, 701-708.
31. Lorenz, F. O., Simons, R. L., & Chao, W. (1996). Family structure and mother's depression. In R. L. Simons & Associates (Eds.), Understanding differences between divorced and intact families. Stress, interaction, and child outcome (pp. 65-77). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
32. Lorenz, F. O., Simons, R. L., Conger, R. D., Elder, G. H., Jr., Johnson, C., & Chao, W. (1997). Married and recently divorced mothers' stressful events and distress: Tracing change across time. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 59, 219-232.
33. Lundberg, O. (1990). Den ojämlika ohälsan. Om klassoch könsskillnader i sjuklighet [Inequality in Ill Health. On Class and Sex Differences in Illness] (Dissertation series 11). Stockholm: Swedish Institute for Social Research.
34. Mastekaasa, A. (1995). Marital dissolution and subjective distress: Panel evidence. European Sociological Review, 11, 173-185.
35. McLanahan, S., & Adams, J. (1987). Parenthood and psychological well-being. Annual Review of Immunology, 5, 237-257.
36. McLeod, J. D., & Shanahan, M. J. (1993). Poverty, parenting, and children's mental health. American Sociological Review, 58, 351-366.
37. Menaghan, E. G. (1985). Depressive affect and subsequent divorce. Journal of Family Issues, 6, 295-306.
38. Menaghan, E. G., & Lieberman, M. A. (1986). Changes in depression following divorce: A panel study. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 48, 319-328.
39. Milardo, R. M. (1987). Changes in social networks of women and men following divorce. A review. Journal of Family Issues, 8, 78-96.
40. Moen, P. (1992). Women's two roles. A contemporary dilemma. New York: Auburn House.
41. Nermo, M. (1994). Den ofullbordade jämställdheten [The unfinished gender equality]. In J. Fritzell & O. Lundberg (Eds.), Vardagens villkor. Levnadsförhållanden i Sverige under tre decennier (pp. 161-183).Stockholm: Brombergs.
42. Oakley, A. (1992). Social support and motherhood. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
43. OECD. (1982). The OECD list of social indicators. Paris: Author.
44. Peterson, R. R. (1989). Women, work, & divorce. New York: State University of New York Press.
45. Pettit, E. J., & Bloom, B. L. (1984). Whose decision was it? The effects of initiator status on adjustment to marital disruption. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 46, 587-595.
46. Poortman, A.-R. (2002). Socioeconomic causes and consequences of divorce, Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
47. Popenoe, D. (1987). Beyond the nuclear family: A statistical portrait of the changing family in Sweden. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 49, 173-183.
48. Raschke, H. J. (1987). Divorce. In M. B. Sussman & S. K. Steinmetz (Eds.), Handbook of marriage and the family (pp. 597-624). New York: Plenum.
49. Rosengren, A., Wedel, H., & Wilhelmsen, L. (1989). Marital status and mortality in middle-aged Swedish men. American Journal of Epidemiology, 129, 54-64.
50. Ross, C. E. (1995). Reconceptualizing marital status as a continuum of social attachment. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 57, 129-140.
51. Schöningh, I. (1992). A friend in need is a friend indeed. Friendships of separated and divorced single mothers. In U. Björnberg (Ed.), One-parent families. Lifestyles and values (pp. 87-99). Amsterdam: SISWO.
52. Simon, R. (2002). Revisiting the relationships among gender, marital status and mental health. American Journal of Sociology, 107, 1065-1096.
53. Simons, R. L., Johnson, C., & Lorenz, F. O. (1996). Family structure differences in stress and behavioral predispositions. In R. L. Simons & Associates (Eds.), Understanding differences between divorced and intact families. Stress, interaction, and child outcome (pp. 45-64).Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
54. Smeeding, T. M. (1992, January-February). Why the U.S. antipoverty system doesn't work very well. Challenge, pp. 30-35.
55. Statistics Sweden (1990). Familjebildning och familjeupplösning under 1980-talet. [Family formation and family dissolution during the 1980s]. Demografiska rapporter 1990:1. Stockholm: Author.
56. Statistics Sweden. (1995). Skilsmässor och separationer—bakgrund och utveckling. [Divorce and separation-Background and development]. Demografiska rapporter 1995:1. Stockholm: Author.
57. Thoits, P. A. (1995). Stress, coping, and social support processes: Where are we? what next? Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 36(Suppl), 53-79.
58. Voydanoff, P. (1990). Economic distress and family relations: A review of the eighties. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 52, 1099-1115.
59. Wadsby, M., & Svedin, C. G. (1992). Divorce: Different experiences of men and women. Family Practice, 9, 451-460.
60. Weiss, R. S. (1976). The emotional impact of marital separation. Journal of Social Issues, 32, 135-145.
61. Wilcox, B. L. (1981). Social support in adjusting to marital disruption. A network analysis. In B. Gottlieb (Ed.), Social networks and social support (pp. 97-115). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
62. Wong, Y.-L. I., Garfinkel, I., & McLanahan, S. (1993). Single-mother families in eight countries: Economic status and social policy. Social Service Review, 67, 177-197.