IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/geronb/v72y2017i4p656-664..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Marital Dissolutions and the Health of Older Individuals in a Rural African Context

Author

Listed:
  • Tyler W. Myroniuk

Abstract

Objectives: Research from high-income countries has often found a negative relationship between marital dissolutions and health. This paper assesses that relationship among older sub-Saharan Africans, on a now-aging continent. Such individuals are likely to be at risk of a dissolution, or have already experienced one, due to high rates of marriage.Methods: Data from over 1,200 rural Malawians, age 45+, are employed from the 2008 and 2010 waves of the Malawi Longitudinal Study of Families and Health. Cross-sectional and lagged dependent variable regressions examine the relationship between marital dissolutions and 4 measures of self-reported health: retrospective health, relative health (compared with others in one’s village), and age-standardized SF-12 mental and physical health scales.Results: Worse relative, mental, and physical health are associated with being currently divorced/widowed compared with being married. However, worse retrospective health is linked to becoming divorced/widowed between 2008 and 2010. Those divorced/widowed prior to 2008, and who remained so through 2010, are in worse relative and physical health.Discussion: The findings question the relative hardship of marital dissolutions for those who have managed to survive into old age, and call for the collection of more detailed longitudinal data on older Africans on this topic.

Suggested Citation

  • Tyler W. Myroniuk, 2017. "Marital Dissolutions and the Health of Older Individuals in a Rural African Context," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 72(4), pages 656-664.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:72:y:2017:i:4:p:656-664.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbw077
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Allison R. Sullivan & Andrew Fenelon, 2014. "Patterns of Widowhood Mortality," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 69(1), pages 53-62.
    2. Georges Reniers, 2003. "Divorce and Remarriage in Rural Malawi," Demographic Research Special Collections, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 1(6), pages 175-206.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tyler W. Myroniuk & Hans-Peter Kohler & Iliana Kohler, 2021. "Marital dissolutions and changes in mental health: Evidence from rural Malawi," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 44(41), pages 993-1022.
    2. Philip Anglewicz & Mark VanLandingham & Lucinda Manda-Taylor & Hans-Peter Kohler, 2018. "Health Selection, Migration, and HIV Infection in Malawi," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(3), pages 979-1007, June.
    3. Jing Li & Xu Hui & Zhenxing Lu & Xiaocao Ren & Wenlong Yan & Peijing Yan & Liang Yao & Kehu Yang, 2022. "PROTOCOL: The association between marital transitions and physical and mental health in late life: A systematic review," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(2), June.

    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. Fitzsimons, Emla & Malde, Bansi & Mesnard, Alice & Vera-Hernández, Marcos, 2016. "Nutrition, information and household behavior: Experimental evidence from Malawi," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 113-126.
    2. John Bongaarts & John Casterline, 2022. "Extramarital fertility in low- and middle-income countries," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 47(3), pages 59-72.
    3. Áureo De Paula & Gil Shapira & Petra E. Todd, 2014. "How Beliefs About Hiv Status Affect Risky Behaviors: Evidence From Malawi," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(6), pages 944-964, September.
    4. Jeremy Greenwood & Philipp Kircher & Cezar Santos & Michèle Tertilt, 2019. "An Equilibrium Model of the African HIV/AIDS Epidemic," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 87(4), pages 1081-1113, July.
    5. Philip Anglewicz, 2012. "Migration, Marital Change, and HIV Infection in Malawi," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 49(1), pages 239-265, February.
    6. Mesnard, Alice & Vera-Hernández, Marcos & Fitzsimons, Emla & Malde, Bansi, 2012. "Household Responses to Information on Child Nutrition: Experimental Evidence from Malawi," CEPR Discussion Papers 8915, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Laurens Cherchye & Bram De Rock & Frederic Vermeulen & Selma Walther, 2021. "Where did it go wrong? Marriage and divorce in Malawi," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 12(2), pages 505-545, May.
    8. Telalagic, S., 2012. "Domestic Production as a Source of Marital Power: Theory and Evidence from Malawi," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1243, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    9. Sikstrom, Laura, 2018. "“There was no love there”: Intergenerational HIV disclosure, and late presentation for antiretroviral therapy in Northern Malawi," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 175-182.
    10. Yanhua Cheng & Daniel Grühn, 2015. "Age Differences in Reactions to Social Rejection: The Role of Cognitive Resources and Appraisals," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 70(6), pages 830-839.
    11. Tawfik, Linda & Watkins, Susan Cotts, 2007. "Sex in Geneva, sex in Lilongwe, and sex in Balaka," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(5), pages 1090-1101, March.
    12. Poulin, Michelle, 2007. "Sex, money, and premarital partnerships in southern Malawi," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(11), pages 2383-2393, December.
    13. Lauren Gaydosh, 2015. "Childhood Risk of Parental Absence in Tanzania," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(4), pages 1121-1146, August.
    14. Lovo, Stefania, 2016. "Tenure Insecurity and Investment in Soil Conservation. Evidence from Malawi," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 219-229.
    15. Anglewicz, Philip & Clark, Shelley, 2013. "The effect of marriage and HIV risks on condom use acceptability in rural Malawi," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 29-40.
    16. Sophia Chae, 2016. "Parental Divorce and Children’s Schooling in Rural Malawi," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(6), pages 1743-1770, December.
    17. Shelley Clark & Dana Hamplová, 2013. "Single Motherhood and Child Mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Life Course Perspective," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(5), pages 1521-1549, October.
    18. Walther, Selma, 2018. "Noncooperative decision making in the household: Evidence from Malawi," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 428-442.
    19. Gertrude E Elleamoh & Fidelia A A Dake, 2019. "“Cementing” marriages through childbearing in subsequent unions: Insights into fertility differentials among first-time married and remarried women in Ghana," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(10), pages 1-14, October.
    20. Sara Yeatman & Christie Sennott & Steven Culpepper, 2013. "Young Women’s Dynamic Family Size Preferences in the Context of Transitioning Fertility," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(5), pages 1715-1737, October.

    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:oup:geronb:v:72:y:2017:i:4:p:656-664.. 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: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/psychsocgerontology .

    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.