Marital status, marital status transitions, and depression: does age matter?

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dc.contributor.advisorRoss, Catherine E., 1953-en
dc.creatorDurden, Emily Dahmeren
dc.date.accessioned2008-08-28T22:53:26Zen
dc.date.accessioned2017-05-11T22:17:17Z
dc.date.available2008-08-28T22:53:26Zen
dc.date.available2017-05-11T22:17:17Z
dc.date.issued2006en
dc.descriptiontexten
dc.description.abstractMost of what we currently know about the association between marital status and mental health is derived from studies that implicitly assume an ageless adult, who is affected by their marital status in the same way to the same degree throughout the adult life course. Using panel data from a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults, I evaluate the usefulness of this assumption by assessing the moderating potential of age on the association between marital status, marital status transitions, and depression, paying special attention to gender. Further, I examine the extent to which contextual factors such as economic well-being and measures of social integration and social support mediate the association between marital status and depression by age, as well as by gender. My findings indicate that the impact of marital status and marital loss on depression is moderated by age for men, but is consistent across age for women. Further, I find substantial variation in the extent to which economic well-being and social integration measures account for the association between marital status and depression across age, as well as by gender. In general, the impact of the measures of economic well-being on the association between marital status and depression is significantly greater than is the impact of the social integration and support measures, particularly for the young- and middle-aged, as well as for women. With regard to age, I find that economic well-being mediates more of the association between marital status and depression for the middle-aged than for younger and older adults, while the social integration and support measures account for more of the association between marital status and depression among young and older adults. Taken together, these results contribute to our understanding of group variation in the associations between marital status, marital status transitions, and depression.
dc.description.departmentSociologyen
dc.format.mediumelectronicen
dc.identifierb61295711en
dc.identifier.oclc72719252en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2152/2522en
dc.language.isoengen
dc.rightsCopyright is held by the author. Presentation of this material on the Libraries' web site by University Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin was made possible under a limited license grant from the author who has retained all copyrights in the works.en
dc.subjectHogg Foundation for Mental Healthen
dc.subjectHarry E. and Bernice Moore Fellowshipen
dc.subject.lcshMarital statusen
dc.subject.lcshDepression, Mental--Age factorsen
dc.titleMarital status, marital status transitions, and depression: does age matter?en
dc.type.genreThesisen

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