IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socpsy/v59y2013i8p801-804.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Risk of new psychiatric episodes in the year following divorce in midlife: Cause or selection? A nationwide register-based study of 703,960 individuals

Author

Listed:
  • Emma Björkenstam
  • Johan Hallqvist
  • Christina Dalman
  • Rickard Ljung

Abstract

Aims: To examine if divorce is associated with an increased risk of psychiatric disorder. Methods: A register-based cohort study of all married or divorced individuals aged 45–54 in Sweden in 2006. After exclusion of 129,669 individuals with a history of psychiatric care in 1987–2005, we followed 703,960 persons for psychiatric disorder during 2007, measured as psychiatric inpatient care, outpatient care and use of psychotropic medication. Marital trajectories were taken into consideration. Data were analysed using Poisson regression. Results: Divorced women and men had a higher risk for psychiatric inpatient care compared to married (ORwomen = 3.2, 95%CI = 1.6–6.3, ORmen = 3.3, 95%CI = 2.0–5.4). The longer the marriage, the lower the risk for psychiatric disorders. Lower educational level increased the risk for psychiatric inpatient care. Conclusions: In conclusion, our study supports both the selection hypothesis, linking healthy individuals to long and stable marriages, and the social causation hypothesis, linking the stress of recent divorce to increased psychiatric disorder for both women and men.

Suggested Citation

  • Emma Björkenstam & Johan Hallqvist & Christina Dalman & Rickard Ljung, 2013. "Risk of new psychiatric episodes in the year following divorce in midlife: Cause or selection? A nationwide register-based study of 703,960 individuals," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 59(8), pages 801-804, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:59:y:2013:i:8:p:801-804
    DOI: 10.1177/0020764012461213
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0020764012461213
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0020764012461213?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ziersch, Anna M., 2005. "Health implications of access to social capital: findings from an Australian study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(10), pages 2119-2131, November.
    2. Strohschein, Lisa & McDonough, Peggy & Monette, Georges & Shao, Qing, 2005. "Marital transitions and mental health: Are there gender differences in the short-term effects of marital status change?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(11), pages 2293-2303, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cretien Campen & Marc Santvoort, 2013. "Explaining Low Subjective Well-Being of Persons with Disabilities in Europe: The Impact of Disability, Personal Resources, Participation and Socio-Economic Status," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 111(3), pages 839-854, May.
    2. Celia Lo & Tyrone Cheng & Gaynell Simpson, 2016. "Marital status and work-related health limitation: a longitudinal study of young adult and middle-aged Americans," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 61(1), pages 91-100, January.
    3. Metsä-Simola, Niina & Martikainen, Pekka, 2013. "Divorce and changes in the prevalence of psychotropic medication use: A register-based longitudinal study among middle-aged Finns," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 71-80.
    4. Landstedt, Evelina & Almquist, Ylva B. & Eriksson, Malin & Hammarström, Anne, 2016. "Disentangling the directions of associations between structural social capital and mental health: Longitudinal analyses of gender, civic engagement and depressive symptoms," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 135-143.
    5. Wilson, Sven E., 2012. "Marriage, gender and obesity in later life," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 431-453.
    6. Shuai Chen & Jan C. van Ours, 2022. "Mental health effects of same‐sex marriage legalization," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(1), pages 42-56, January.
    7. Engström, Karin & Mattsson, Fredrik & Järleborg, Anders & Hallqvist, Johan, 2008. "Contextual social capital as a risk factor for poor self-rated health: A multilevel analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(11), pages 2268-2280, June.
    8. Tosi, Marco & van den Broek, Thijs, 2020. "Gray divorce and mental health in the United Kingdom," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    9. Shuai Chen & Jan C. Ours, 2018. "Subjective Well-being and Partnership Dynamics: Are Same-Sex Relationships Different?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(6), pages 2299-2320, December.
    10. Nicole Hiekel & Mine Kühn, 2021. "Mental health before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: the role of partnership and parenthood status in growing disparities between types of families," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2021-013, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    11. Eriksson, Malin & Ng, Nawi, 2015. "Changes in access to structural social capital and its influence on self-rated health over time for middle-aged men and women: A longitudinal study from northern Sweden," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 250-258.
    12. Rebecca E Lacey & Meena Kumari & Amanda Sacker & Mai Stafford & Diana Kuh & Anne McMunn, 2016. "Work-Family Life Courses and Metabolic Markers in the MRC National Survey of Health and Development," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(8), pages 1-13, August.
    13. Webber, Martin P. & Huxley, Peter J., 2007. "Measuring access to social capital: The validity and reliability of the Resource Generator-UK and its association with common mental disorder," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 481-492, August.
    14. Verhaeghe, Pieter-Paul & Tampubolon, Gindo, 2012. "Individual social capital, neighbourhood deprivation, and self-rated health in England," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 349-357.
    15. Sara Zella, 2017. "Marital Status Transitions and Self-Reported Health among Canadians: A Life Course Perspective," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 12(2), pages 303-325, June.
    16. Stephens, Christine, 2008. "Social capital in its place: Using social theory to understand social capital and inequalities in health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(5), pages 1174-1184, March.
    17. Mithen, Johanna & Aitken, Zoe & Ziersch, Anne & Kavanagh, Anne M., 2015. "Inequalities in social capital and health between people with and without disabilities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 26-35.
    18. Iris Meulman & Bette Loef & Niek Stadhouders & Tron Anders Moger & Albert Wong & Johan J. Polder & Ellen Uiters, 2023. "Estimating healthcare expenditures after becoming divorced or widowed using propensity score matching," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 24(7), pages 1047-1060, September.
    19. Thomas Leopold, 2016. "Gender Differences in the Consequences of Divorce: A Multiple-Outcome Comparison of Former Spouses," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 841, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    20. Neena Chappell & Laura Funk, 2010. "Social Capital: Does it Add to the Health Inequalities Debate?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 99(3), pages 357-373, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:socpsy:v:59:y:2013:i:8:p:801-804. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.