Psychological Well-being Among Older Adults: The Role of Partnership Status

Today's older adults are increasingly unmarried. Some are in cohabiting unions, others are dating, and many remain unpartnered. Unmarried older adults are at risk of poorer well-being than married older adults, but it is unclear whether older cohabitors fare worse than or similar to their marri...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of marriage and family Vol. 79; no. 3; pp. 833 - 849
Main Authors: Wright, Matthew R., Brown, Susan L.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Hoboken, USA The National Council on Family Relations 01.06.2017
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Subjects:
Adults
Aging
Aging (Individuals)
Attachment
Cohabitation
dating
Family Income
Females
Health and Psychological Well-being
Interpersonal Relationship
Males
Marital status
Marriage
Men
Mental health
Older Adults
Older people
Personal relationships
Psychological aspects
Psychological Patterns
Psychological well being
Severity (of Disability)
Sex differences
Social Life
Social life & customs
Spouses
Well being
Women
dating
aging
cohabitation
marriage
mental health
ISSN:0022-2445, 1741-3737
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Today's older adults are increasingly unmarried. Some are in cohabiting unions, others are dating, and many remain unpartnered. Unmarried older adults are at risk of poorer well-being than married older adults, but it is unclear whether older cohabitors fare worse than or similar to their married counterparts; nor have well-being differences among cohabitors, daters, and unpartnered persons been considered. Conceptualizing marital status as a continuum of social attachment, data from Waves I and II of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project are used to examine how older married, cohabiting, dating, and unpartnered individuals differ across multiple indicators of psychological well-being. Among men, cohabitors appear to fare similarly to the married, and better than daters and the unpartnered. In contrast, there are few differences in psychological well-being by partnership status for women.
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ISSN:0022-2445
1741-3737
DOI:10.1111/jomf.12375